My lesson of the last month is, even if you are immersed in something, there is always a lot more to learn.  See, over the last month, i moved myself from “interested party” to “community organizer”, and found that from my new vantage point, my eyes opened much wider to the dimensions of the problem I hope to influence towards solution.

That problem, not a new one for TribLocal Highland Park readers, is the open issue of what the Lake County Forest Preserves District should do with the former golf course at Fort Sheridan.  Since 2003, when LCFPD shut down the old golf course along Lake Michigan, this issue has been mired in politics, lawsuits, and agendas.

My agenda is a very simple one.  When Fort Sheridan closed, a group of very smart people, from various local, state, and national bodies, came up with a master plan, a long term view of how this amazing property should be redeveloped.  Today in 2010, all but one element of that master plan is in place.  500 families live within the Town of Fort Sheridan residences.  They pay steep annual assessments to privately maintain the historic properties, such as the Tower, and the open spaces, such as the meadow.  Openlands has done a great job with Bartlett Ravine restoration and waterfront access.  Artists flourish, both visually and musically, in dedicated historic buildings.  Highland Park and Highwood provide the city services in two seamless halves of the subdivision.

The only thing missing is the old golf course.  Lake County Forest Preserves originally offered to pay for that golf course, instead receiving the land for free in exchange for maintaining the military cemetery.  LCFPD commissioned not one but two world-class, 18-hole golf course designs for this site between 1995 and 2003, acting with intent to upgrade the inherited basic facility.  For whatever reason, at the end of 2003, they shut down the old course — bulldozed it, in fact — in preparation for a not-yet-under contract implementation of the new design.  Then the bids came in too high, and the scapegoat was a pile of dirt left by the housing developer.

That dirt pile is gone now, and the land sits as an empty parcel, showing few scars from its prior lives as an airstrip and artillery range.  LCFPD has put in a few trails and historical exhibits, but golf, which they signed a contract to provide “in perpetuity”, isn’t back.

LCFPD understands they have a dilemma, and they convened an advisory board to recommend a path forward.  I’d venture to assert this advisory committee has garnered more public involvement in LCFPD activities than any issue in the last decade.  They must love the attention, especially in an election year.  An open house on the issue, held on August 26 in Lake Forest, attracted hundreds of area residents, politicians, and even muckrakers.

On the table are three 9-hole golf course designs for the Fort Sheridan land.  They meet the letter of the legal requirement the LCFPD has been in violation of since 2004.  Two of the designs look like nice courses; multiple tee boxes to make a “go twice” round feel like 18, holes finishing on the bluff over Lake Michigan, and a buffer from the Fort Sheridan Tower residents that the old course never had (no more golf balls in parked car windows).  The leading design, referred to as “2B”", has a 6-hole learning course in its midst, for instructional use by those learning golf.  All feature interspersed nature trails and beach access, including the nice work LCFPD has done so far at the site.  The design firm, Lohmann Designs, says that any of the proposals could be built for around $5 million — a far cry from old estimates for this property, and by comparison, only 20% of what LCFPD spent on their new $24 million maintenance facility.

These are compromise positions, for sure.  Yet an opposition still believes it is the wrong thing to comply with LCFPD’s legal obligation to operate a golf course on the site — the very reason they received the land for free.  Those opponents are loud and distort the truth, making for sad politics — sadder still because it seems some of the LCPFD commissioners are listening to their lies.  But among area voters, opponents are a small minority.  

Over the month prior to the open house, I organized a few of us to talk about the proposed golf course at the Highwood Evening Farmer’s Market.  About 500 people stopped by.  99% were in favor of the golf course moving forward, most wondering why the heck we weren’t done with this already.  We told those in favor of moving forward with the compromise mixed use design to join our Facebook group (facebook.com/fortsheridan) or email the LCFPD at fort@lcfpd.org before the advisory committee’s September 15 meeting.  Many have done so.

The solution is finally before us.  It’s not what anyone ideally wants.  The open space advocates throw red herrings of past financial projections and obscure examples of municipal excess to “prove” that a golf course at Fort Sheridan won’t make money; the LCFPD’s own consultant says it can cover its operating expenses (no taxpayer subsidies) in the very first year.  The opposition points out that some other area golf courses aren’t making money, not acknowledging that any sector has winners and losers, and none of those courses are public facilities on the shore of Lake Michigan.  In fact, every objection raised over the last six years has been more than adequately, fiscally, and emotionally addressed.

As the public comment phase winds down, the LCFPD leadership has the opportunity to prove their integrity and commit to rebuild a golf course, the last component of a long-term master plan.  Some of the commissioners up for re-election are afraid to honor that responsibility, finding every excuse not to right a historical wrong.  It seems to me, they should be more afraid of what happens if they don’t.