GENEVA - Fresh off winning re-election, a Kane County Board member has already declared that this term in office will be his last.

Kane County Board member Mike Donahue, R-Geneva, said in a conversation with the Kane County Chronicle after the election that he intends to serve the next two years in office, but then step aside and let another claim the seat in the County Board's 11th District.

"This will be the last campaign for me," Donahue said.

First elected to the County Board in 2010, Donahue quickly stepped into a leadership role, taking the reins of a county effort to draft a plan to guide the redevelopment of the Settlers Hill landfill.

The Settlers Hill redevelopment project had stood at the center of his first election campaign.

Last year, the planning effort drew criticism from some other board members and from some Tri-Cities residents concerned about the plan's impact on the neighboring Fabyan Forest Preserve and about pollution from the landfill.

But Donahue ultimately helped steer the plan to approval from the Kane County Board, who generally approved of the vision to use money the county had specifically collected as fees from waste haulers dumping at the landfill to convert the now-closed landfill into a regional recreational destination.

Donahue secured re-election, breezing to an easy win on Nov. 6.

In the two years of his next term on the board, he said he hopes to help take the project from the drawing board to reality. But Donahue said that work will not lead him to remain on the board any longer than his second term, which expires in 2014.

He said he believes in term limits and believes he should set an example for other County Board members and public officials in Kane County and elsewhere.

"I've never really been interested in being re-elected," Donahue said. "I gauge my effectiveness based on the feedback I get from people within my district.

"And in the next two years, I plan to stay pragmatic and objective, and not get involved in personal dynamics."