Local Farmer Pitches Farmland Preservation Program to Combat Will County Industrialization

Village of Manhattan Meeting | March 16, 2026

Article Summary: A local farmer and Will County Planning and Zoning Commissioner urged the Manhattan Village Board to support a new farmland preservation initiative aimed at keeping agricultural land out of the hands of warehouse developers.

Farmland Preservation Key Points:

• Resident John Kiefner proposed adopting a local Farmland Preservation program modeled after a successful Kane County initiative.

• The program would unlock federal matching funds to financially compensate farmers for preserving their land in perpetuity.

• Will County currently loses 1 to 3 farms annually to the forest preserve, which removes the land from local tax rolls.

• The board agreed to review Kiefner’s proposal and informational packet for future discussion.

Faced with the continuous threat of industrial sprawl, the Manhattan Village Board on Monday, March 16, 2026, heard a detailed proposal for a farmland preservation program designed to protect agricultural boundaries and unlock federal funding.

John Kiefner, a local farmer who also serves on the Will County Planning and Zoning Commission, addressed the board during public comment. He noted that during large-scale zoning cases, the public consistently voices opposition to the loss of farmland, yet Will County currently lacks any mechanism to prevent it.

“There’s nothing that the farmers can do to prevent their land, upon their passing or retirement, from ever being converted to non-farm uses,” Kiefner explained.

He pointed to Kane County as the model for success. Kane County launched Northern Illinois’ only working farmland preservation program in 2010, protecting over 7,000 acres within its first three years. Kiefner noted that Kane County’s current population is roughly where Will County was 30 years ago, highlighting the urgent need to implement protections before all rural land is absorbed.

The core of the program relies on leveraging federal dollars. Kiefner explained that every federal Farm Bill includes funding for farmland protection, but those dollars are only released if a local municipality or county has an established regulatory program to provide matching funds.

Currently, Kiefner stated that Will County sees one to three farms a year willed to the forest preserve district by retiring farmers who desperately want to prevent their land from being developed. However, when land is transferred to the government, it is removed from the property tax rolls.

Under Kiefner’s proposed preservation program, farmers could place restrictive easements on their property ensuring it remains agricultural in perpetuity. The land would stay in the family or could be sold to other farmers, preventing massive warehouse or residential developers from swooping in with high-dollar buyouts, all while continuing to generate tax revenue.

“Imagine if we had a program that offered some money, or we had a program that people knew they could actually keep the land in their family yet still know that upon their passing, for perpetuity, it would be protected,” Kiefner said.

Kiefner provided the board with sample resolutions and literature, asking the village to publicly support the initiative as Will County updates its Land Resource Management Plan this year. Mayor Mike Adrieansen thanked Kiefner for the detailed presentation and confirmed the board would review the materials and reach out for further discussion.