12021-03-02T09:46:21-06:00Kate Flynn89ab0aeaf9441ebcfe2d9d020d3b00b0ffd82873138Forest Preserve District of Cook County records (MSFPDC09), FPDCC_00_01_0003_003, box 0-1-3, item 3, Special Collections & University Archives, University of Illinois Chicago Library.plain2023-09-15T15:19:52-05:00Dan Harpereff3db32ed95b3efe91d381826e2c10c145cd452
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12021-01-25T15:19:14-06:00The 1914 Referendum, Success at Last18plain2023-10-06T13:41:16-05:00With public support firmly behind them, Perkins and his allies focused almost entirely on the legislative process. They formed the “Forest Preserve District Association of Cook County” in 1912. This association, in essence a lobbying group, focused almost entirely on drafting new legislation in the General Assembly. The end result was the Forest Preserve Act of 1913.
The provisions of this act differed significantly from the laws that had been passed in 1905 and 1909. Those laws would have created an independent Forest Preserve Board. The 1913 law, on the other hand, provided that any new board be headed by county commissioners. This change addressed opponents’ fear that an independent, unelected government body might levy taxes “arbitrarily.” The new law expanded the scope of a new forest preserve district, so that any district would cover an entire county. That feature answered the state supreme court's objection that the 1909 law favored only particular parts of a county. This new measure came up for a referendum vote in Cook County in November 1914. While Perkins’s Forest Preserve District Association took the lead in rallying voter support, others helped the effort. Mayor Carter Harrison of Chicago, for example, called on citizens to vote yes. The Chicago Plan Commission, formed to promote the adoption of Daniel Burnham’s Plan of Chicago, also endorsed a yes vote. Charles H. Wacker, who sat on the commission, urged citizens to help fulfill Burnham’s vision by making “possible the acquiring of land for the people of great forest playgrounds outside but close to the city.”
These endorsements did not hurt, but the election was never truly in doubt. Voters again approved a forest preserve district, this time by a margin of more than 100,000 votes. The Forest Preserve District of Cook County was created.