Group Opposing Calumet Country Club Annexation Out To Inform Residents

HAZEL CREST, IL — Nearly two weeks after a group of residents concerned with the potential redevelopment of Calumet Country Club voiced their opposition to village officials over plans to annex the 130-acre property, the organization fighting hardest against the plan will gather this weekend to provide information they feel has been kept from the community.

South Suburbs For Greenspace will hold an informational meeting about the project at 2 p.m. on Sunday after opponents of the proposed annexation of the country club property annexation have accused village officials of keeping local residents in the dark regarding what they plan to do with the land.

At the village’s board meeting on Jan. 24, public comments between concerned citizens and village officials — namely mayor Vernard Alsberry — became contentious at times as residents expressed displeasure over the village’s consideration of annexing the land. The meeting came a year after Alsberry said in a Facebook Live video that annexing the 130 acres — which currently sits in unincorporated Cook County — was not in the best interest of both the village and the Southland region.

Now, residents are concerned with the golf course property being rezoned as industrial property although Alsberry has said that redevelopment of the 130 acres is not certain. He has maintained that if it is annexed, it would be zoned as residential. However, opponents of the proposal are convinced that won't be the case.

Sunday’s meeting, which will take place at Wiley’s Grill at Coyote Run Golf Course (800 Kedzie Ave. in Flossmoor) will fill in “the informational gap” that residents and opponents of the annexation plan said has been left by public officials. At the recent board meeting, residents told Alsberry and board members that they feel like they did not have an adequate opportunity to learn more about plans for the property should village officials vote to annex the property.

A proposal to do that is on the agenda for the board’s Feb. 14 meeting.

“The residents clearly expressed their concerns at the (January 24 board) meeting, and we all want more information on the plans before there is a vote to annex in the property,” Hazel Crest resident Shatisha Woods said in a news release issued by the South Suburban group. “Voting without regard to resident concerns or fully informing the residents is not how a transparent government works.”

When pressed on how residents were supposed to learn more about the project before the board voted on the annexation measure on Feb. 14, Alsberry said at the Jan. 24 meeting that residents would have the chance to again speak on the issue during the public comment portion of the meeting.

But representatives from South Suburbs For Greenspace maintain that the mayor changed his position on the issue after two $5,000 donations were made to his campaign last year. The first donation came, the group said, a day after the developer and owner of the property emailed the mayor seeking time to speak to him. The second donation came within a day of when the developer toured the golf course property last summer, the group said.

Now, in an effort to bring residents up to speed, the organization has promised to share material that was obtained from the village via Freedom of Information Act requests. Among other items, SSG will have copies of memos from the Hazel Crest attorney describing the development’s improbability, a timeline of the development’s history in Hazel Crest, and campaign donation information from illinoissunshine.org, the group said.

“It’s unbelievable that the mayor is trying to slight the community in this manner, in such a backhanded way,” Hazel Crest resident Pamela Love said in the news release. “He and his trustees know the residents are uninformed, and they are introducing it now during the cold months because people are less likely to get out, less likely to canvas.

She added: “It’s really hard to imagine they would treat the constituents like this.”