Homewood Will Fight Industrial Park Plans On Golf Course Site

HOMEWOOD, IL — Homewood officials are vowing to fight plans by an Arizona developer to annex the 130-acre Calumet Country Club golf course to Hazel Crest and replace it with a 1-million-square-foot industrial park.

Homewood officials and residents said they would fight both industrial development on the site and losing the land to Hazel Crest. Trustees added that they would investigation all options, including eminent domain, historic preservation and purchasing the land. No action, however, was taken at the meeting, which was held for informational purposes.

"We want to stop this in a heartbeat," said Trustee Larry Burnson in a meeting held last week to discuss the plans with the public.

Earlier this month, Diversified Partners notified the village that it intends to sue to disconnect the property from Homewood ,and indicated it would be looking to annex it into neighboring Hazel Crest. About 116 acres of the site sits in Homewood, with the remainder in Hazel Crest. The former country club land is located at the northwest corner of Dixie Highway and 175th Street.

The move comes after negotiations to redevelop the golf course broke down.

In 2018, Diversified Partners agreed to buy the property from a group of club members, residents and others who formed a limited liability company called CCC Investors to operate the struggling golf course. Diversified Partners then approached village officials to propose redeveloping the land.

According to village officials, the company proposed several acceptable concepts that included building an IKEA store, hotels, strip malls or age-restricted housing on the site. Those plans included leaving much of the green space intact. However, during the weeks of discussion, Diversified Partners dramatically changed its proposals to build rock-crushing centers, industrial storage containers and distribution centers on the site because, its representatives said, that's what the market for the area would accept.

All of those options were unacceptable, Mayor Rich Hofeld said.

"We said it was too intense and not a good fit," he said at the meeting.

Diversified Partners nevertheless persisted with the plans. Its final proposal calls for several distribution center buildings with loading docks to be built there, along with parking for tractor-trailer trucks. This would result in more than 300 trucks entering and exiting the facility every day.

Walt Brown, founder and CEO of Diversified Partners told the Chicago Business Journal that the $93 million-project would bring 600 to 800 new jobs to the area. He also said the project would add walking and biking trails and water features to the site, and said the property would keep its two lakes.

"This is the most important issue this board is going to face in the next 10 years," Claude Gendreau, owner of Ravisloe Country Club in Homewood. "This is a jewel. Calumet Country Club is an asset with 125 acres of open land, mature trees ... it is important we keep this as open land for our ecosystem to counteract our carbon footprint."

The green space also is critical for storm water management and as a wildlife habitat, he said.

Calumet Country Club is an 18-hole golf course built in 1901 and designed by Donald Ross. It is a semi-private championship course that opened to the public last year as a way to pay about $2.5 million in debt.