Homewood residents seek to have say in suit
Group bidding to intervene in property disconnection case
A Cook County judge could consider next week a bid by a group of Homewood residents to intervene in a lawsuit regarding the Calumet Country Club’s attempt to disconnect from the village.
In stepping into the fray, residents hope they can block plans by property owner Diversified Partners to redevelop the site for warehouses and distribution.
Homewood’s Village Board voted March 9 against rezoning the 116 acres of the site that are in the village, following a recommendation March 4 by the village’s Planning and Zoning commission.
Before the sale last fall to Diversified, owners of the golf course filed a lawsuit in July 2019 seeking disconnection of the property, northwest of Dixie Highway and 175th Street.
Judge Maureen Ward Kirby may consider the residents’ request to intervene March 25, when the case is next up in court, said Patrick Keating, a Homewood attorney representing residents Kathryn Jakubowski, Casey Kueltzo, Danielle Nolen-Ragland, Carolyn Notorangelo and Elizabeth Varmecky. James Tunick, an attorney who lives in the village, is assisting.
Homewood taxpayers “could suffer tangible detriments and they will be seriously adversely affected if the (disconnection case) is not adequately defended,” according to the March 11 filing.
Those adverse impacts could include reduced property values, significantly worsened air quality and decreased roadway safety, the filing states.
“Homewood needs help in defending this town from outside interests and we are prepared to be that assistance,” Varmecky said.
Keating said the state statute that allows a property owner to seek disconnection in court also gives resident taxpayers the right to intervene as defendants.
It was believed the property, once detached from Homewood, would then be annexed by neighboring Hazel Crest, which borders the golf course on three sides.
About 12 acres of the former country club, along the west side of Dixie Highway, are in Hazel Crest.
The country club was founded in 1901 and annexed to Homewood in 1980.
Hazel Crest elected officials last month said they had no desire to work with Diversified Partners or allow the proposed development in their community.
The Homewood Village Board agreed in January to settle the lawsuit, committing the village to reviewing the proposed development, which could bring up to 800,000 square feet of warehouse-distribution space.
The residents’ filing alleges Homewood’s government, in agreeing to the settlement, “cannot adequately represent the interests of the Homewood taxpayers going forward.”
The village’s attorney, Chris Cummings did not respond Tuesday to a request for comment.
Under the settlement agreement, Diversified would have received $1 million from Homewood only after the village rezoned the golf course to allow the logistics development, established a tax increment financing district and finalized a redevelopment agreement, according to Cummings.
The agreement had set 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 agreed to the property being disconnected. Diversified would not receive the $1 million but would be paid $250,000, according to Cummings.
The disconnection lawsuit had been scheduled to go to trial March 5, but that was postponed while the rezoning was considered by the village.
According to the residents’ filing, no new trial date has been set.
Following the Village Board’s unanimous vote against rezoning, Walt Brown Jr., Diversified’s chief executive officer, told the Daily Southtown he expected the property to be “disconnected quickly” from Homewood and that he would start preparing the site for redevelopment.