Homewood planners vote against zoning change for golf course property
“I don’t see where the positive of this deal is. This deal stinks like stagnant water in a detention pond.” — Commissioner Seth Bransky
Homewood’s Village Board is scheduled to vote Tuesday on whether to rezone the former Calumet Country Club to allow development of warehouses.
The meeting comes after the village’s Planning and Zoning Commission voted unanimously Thursday against the proposal, sending its negative recommendation to the Village Board.
“I have seen much better plans come in for much smaller projects,” Zoning Chairman Fred Sierzega told developers. “You guys didn’t do any homework” to gauge the temperature of residents.
Commissioners held five meetings on the matter and heard some 20 hours of testimony and public comments, including impassioned pleas from residents that the site, although privately owned, remain open green space.
Arizona-based Diversified Partners paid $3.3 million for the golf course, northwest of 175th Street and Dixie Highway, and is also seeking from Homewood creation of a tax increment financing district for the property.
Walter Brown Jr., Diversified’s chief executive officer, did not respond Friday to a request for comment.
No Homewood residents spoke in the favor of the proposal and many cited concerns about increased truck traffic, air pollution and declining property values. Those who attended Thursday’s meeting applauded following the commission’s vote.
“I don’t see where the positive of this deal is,” Commissioner Seth Bransky said before voting. “This deal stinks like stagnant water in a detention pond.”
During a Wednesday meeting lasted more than seven hours, residents from Homewood and nearby communities asked commissioners to vote against the rezoning.
Liz Varmecky, a Homewood resident with the recently formed South Suburbs for Greenspace Over Concrete, cited a possible domino effect, with Ravisloe Country Club in Homewood and Park District owned Coyote Run Golf Course in neighboring Flossmoor possibly in line for similar redevelopment.
“These contribute to making Homewood and
Flossmoor a gem of the south suburbs,” Varmecky said.
Longtime Homewood resident Elaine Egdorf said she worried people would be discouraged from moving to the village if the redevelopment were allowed to proceed.
“It’s not going to be the town we love,” she said.
Resident Christine Reardon called the proposal a “shortsighted disaster of a plan” that offers “no benefits to our town … and a lot of downsides,”
Residents have said that, if not a golf course, other uses should be considered to keeping the property from being redeveloped for a logistics park.
A commercial restate firm hired to evaluate potential uses and market the site has said there was no interest from possible retail, office or residential developers.
Before the sale last fall to Diversified, owners of the golf course had filed a lawsuit in July 2019 in Cook County Circuit Court to disconnect the property from Homewood, 116 acres of which are in Homewood and about 12 acres in Hazel Crest.
Homewood officials agreed to settle the lawsuit and committed to reviewing the redevelopment proposal.
Under the settlement agreement, Diversified would receive $1 million from Homewood only after the village rezones the golf course to allow the distribution development, establishes a tax increment financing district and finalizes a redevelopment agreement, according to Chris Cummings, Homewood’s village attorney.
The agreement sets a May 12 deadline for all of those to happen, Cummings said. Should that deadline not be met and the TIF not be established, Homewood would consent to the property being disconnected from the village. Diversified would not receive the $1 million but would be paid $250,000, Cumming said.
While the golf course is surrounded on three sides by neighboring Hazel Crest, elected officials there said recently they have no interest in welcoming the logistics park development to their community.