Western Springs Poll: What Should Happen to Timber Trails West?

( results: of 92 respondents, 40 percent [37] favored stricter restrictions and enforcement on dogs and dog owners, 36 percent [33] thought the status quo struck a good balance and 24 percent [22] favored a less strict approach.)

Timber Trails Unit II is a very attractive piece of land. It just doesn't look very attractive right now, with scattered remnants of old cart paths, waist-high fescue, a rotting old canopy or two, and enough burrs and elevation changes to make you wonder if whoever named Burr Ridge was actually thinking of somewhere a little farther northeast.

This has been the state of the former golf course since its ill-fated 2005 sale to Dartmoor Homes and (disputably fated) annexation by the village of Western Springs. Since Dartmoor foreclosed on its planned development—leaving the eastern unit half-finished, but that's another matter entirely—there has been much discussion of what to do with the western half.

Should it be preserved as a park, perhaps as open green space to complement , as by the organization Openlands, who at one point had a contract to do so but were recently for lack of funds? Or restored as a , the desire of many Timber Trails Unit I residents, as well as Cog Hill's Jemsek family? Or would you prefer to see houses developed, as originally intended (and seemingly desired by many Village staff,) bolstering the Village's population and tax base?

Or maybe you have an entirely different idea? Personally, I can't help but notice that the Village conspicuously lacks a good (and sanctioned) sledding hill, and TTU2 (how's that for an acronym?) has the best slopes of land within our boundaries.

Please vote and sound off in the comments!