District considers changes at golf courses
During warmer weather, Sylvia Adams walks the perimeter of River Oaks Golf Course for exercise.
From her seventh-floor condominium overlooking the 18-hole course in Calumet City, “it’s a beautiful sight to see from your window,” she said.
But Adams and other residents of The Park of River Oaks condominiums are concerned about possible changes being considered by the Cook County Forest Preserve District.
The district held workshops in recent months to gather input on potential uses of River Oaks as well as the district’s Burnham Woods golf course in Burnham.
Options include adding amenities such as picnic groves, nature trails and fishing sites, and possible reconfigurations of the courses to cut in half the number of golf holes and add practice greens and driving ranges, according to Carl Vogel, spokesman for the district.
The district isn’t rushing forward with any one option, and is slowing down the process to gather more community input based on what’s been heard at the community forums and through surveys, he said.
“We learned that there are a lot of factors in play, and so we have more work to do,” Vogel said. “We want to dig deeper with discussions in the community about options and opportunities.”
For Adams, who has lived in The Park since 1999, said there is just one option to consider.
“We’d like to see the 18-hole golf course stay an 18-hole golf course,” she said.
Although not a golfer herself, Adams said there are several people in The Park, which has 572 condominiums in two buildings, who play the course.
She said she is leery of plans that could bring nongolfers to the course and possibly affect security at the condominium complex.
“We live smack dab in the middle of (the golf course),” she said.
Off of 159th Street and a short distance east of Interstate 94, the golf course is next to the Little Calumet River, and flooding is a frequent problem, according to Vogel and Adams.
“When we get heavy rains it looks like an ocean,” Adams said. “They need to deal with the flooding issue and revitalize what they have.”
The River Oaks and Burnham Woods courses are costly to maintain and need a significant investment in infrastructure, according to the forest district.
Based on a 2018 assessment by an outside consultant, capital needs at River Oaks are $3.3 million while $2.6 million is required at Burnham Woods, with both requiring course improvements and new drainage and irrigation systems, according to the district.
The pandemic has helped spark an increase in outdoor recreation, and officials said the district’s 11 courses so far this year have seen more than 311,000 rounds of golf played, the highest number since 2017.
In 2020, COVID-19 shutdowns of golf courses, followed by limitations on tee times and number of golfers allowed in groups, affected numbers of rounds played,
according to the district.
River Oaks this year had a bit more than 7,460 rounds played compared with 2019’s pre-pandemic number of 9,970, according to the district. There were a bit more than 8,300 rounds played in 2020.
At Burnham Woods, the number of rounds in 2021 is a little more than 7,500 compared with slightly more than 6,700 in 2019. Last year there were nearly 6,900 rounds played at the course, according to the district.
Adams said she believes the number of golfers would increase if the district spent some money improving the River Oaks course and did a better job marketing it.
She said dozens of the condominium complex residents attended forest preserve district forums Oct. 26 and Dec. 4 at the district’s Sand Ridge Nature Center, a few blocks east of the River Oaks course.
Adams said most residents favor maintaining the 18-hole course, although Vogel said surveys the district received also indicate support for other amenities such as hiking trails at both River Oaks and Burnham Woods.
Adams said she and other residents of The Park don’t want to find out after the fact that changes to River Oaks have been approved.
“We are a community here, we are workers, we are taxpayers,” she said. “We need to be involved in the decision-making process.”
Vogel said the district is a partner with the community in whatever happens.
“For these courses, we’re making decisions that will have an impact for decades or more,” he said. “It’s important to us to get it right.”