When negotiations hit a rough patch, the city of Yorkville approved eminent domain to acquire a strip of land along Kennedy Road belonging to Blackberry Oaks Golf Course.

With one last swing at an agreement, it appears both sides have cleared the final hazard.

As part of the Kennedy Road expansion, which includes widening the pavement and adding turn lanes to improve the intersection at Freedom Trail, the city has tried to acquire 30 feet along the front edge of the club house area.

The city said it needs 0.84 acres of permanent and temporary easement for the project.

City administrator Bart Olson said the city offered the golf course a “fair market price” of $1,800 for the stretch of land. He said the project is imperative to accommodate the growing Grande Reserve subdivision.

“We’ve been trying to work with them on voluntary acquisition of the property for about two years, which has resulted in project delays through two construction seasons, at the cost to the public of around $75,000 to $100,000,” Olson said during the Jan. 27 City Council meeting.

On a split-vote, the City Council authorized eminent domain with the stipulation the city would try one last round of negotiations with the golf course.

Frank Maly of Blackberry Oaks Golf Course said attorneys for both sides are coming to an agreement that should soon be concluded.

He said central to the golf course’s initial opposition to the city’s request is trying to protect the front of the course property from construction crews.

“They want to take a temporary easement which would involve cutting down 13 of our large, 200-year old oak trees, that’s what we don’t like,” Maly said. “It’s not even for the new road, it’s just a temporary easement to move their equipment. We’re having a hard time agreeing with that. The city is going to do what the city needs to do. We just want to be fairly compensated.”

The city said it would buy new trees for the property.

But losing the two-century-year-old oaks would dramatically transform the aesthetics of the front of the course.

The city said it looked into potentially shifting the roadway east towards the subdivision and away from Blackberry Oaks. That option would add too extra costs and delays because of the private and city utilities that would need to be moved, the city said.

As part of past negotiations, the city said it offered a free water hookup if the golf course agreed to annex into the city. The golf course said they did not want to annex into the city because of all the additional taxes and expenses.

Maly said the golf course is looking for more than the $1,800 offer but does not know what the final sum will be for the land.

The project to expand the Kennedy Road and Freedom Trail intersection was initially estimated to cost around $1 million.

In 2021, the city received around $2.8 million from the developers of the Grande Reserve subdivision for reconstructing Kennedy Road due to the influx of new traffic from residents moving to the area.

Newly planted oak trees will take decades to reach the same heights as the trees facing demolition. A White Oak, the state tree of Illinois, grows at an average rate of 12 to 18 inches in height per year.