When local leaders last week adopted a tentative plan for a bucolic upscale community along the shores of Lake Michigan at historic Ft. Sheridan, it was a major step, but not the last hurdle to overcome.
Officials now must grapple with such complicated issues as accommodating homeless shelters, how to draw municipal and school district boundaries, and how to fund the financially strained schools in Highwood and Highland Park. And they will have to integrate their plan with one from Lake County Forest Preserve District for a redesigned golf course.
Finally, they must find a developer willing to take on the risky business of rehabbing 94 landmark buildings and constructing what essentially amounts to another town with a potential population of 2,000, all in a soft real estate market.
The proposed housing development that the leaders envisioned would have as many as 550 homes surrounding a village green. It would sit next to 290 acres of public open space and a lakefront golf course and be designed to mimic historic details of the landmark buildings.
Army officials working with the Ft. Sheridan Joint Planning Committee said Thursday that the Pentagon is likely to go along with the idea.
Officials consider the tentative plan reached Thursday night a success because it takes into account the needs of historic preservationists and open space advocates, who want the integrity of the base’s historic district preserved as well as some 290 acres of undeveloped open space.
“Now we have to pull it all together,” said Lake Forest Mayor Rhett Butler, in describing the next step for the committee. The local coalition of governments from Lake Forest, Highwood, Highland Park and Lake County is working on a proposal for some 400 acres at the former Army base. They hope to be able to present it to the Army by the end of the month.
The tentative plan that was crafted last week, however, has local leaders excited.
“Overall I am excited about the (proposed) plan, even with several issues not resolved,” said Lake County Commissioner Colin McRae (R-Mundelein).
It will be the third re-use plan crafted for the fort in the five years since the Pentagon decided to close the former Army base. The Army moved out in May 1993 and for more than a year the yellow brick buildings at the 700-acre base have stood vacant. Other proposals were rejected by the Pentagon and Congress.
One of the biggest challenges now facing the committee will be dealing with homeless shelters.
Federal officials have approved the applications of three agencies who want buildings at the base. They are Catholic Charities, Community Economic Development Association Northwest (CEDA), and Chicago Vietnam Veterans and Family Assistance Program.
The agencies have approval to take over abandoned housing units and other buildings on the base. They plan to operate short-term transitional housing programs for homeless families in the Chicago area. Catholic Charities received 21 rowhouses containing approximately 80 apartments, and CEDA received six officer’s homes, three duplexes and part of the officers’ club.
“I imagine they will want to work with the committee,” said Highland Park Mayor Dan Pierce, who said the committee will meet with them to discuss their needs. Local leaders are concerned that homeless shelters at the base will make it hard to sell expensive property and make developers leery of investing.
One option, Pierce said, might allow a developer to build a homeless shelter elsewhere in exchange for rights to develop Ft. Sheridan.
Lyle Q. Foster, executive director of CEDA, said his agency may end up agreeing to go elsewhere.
“We think this is a very appropriate use of the military base, but we’re open to discussion,” he said.
In addition, Pierce along with Highwood Mayor John Sirotti, said they must be satisfied that there will be enough property tax revenue to take care of their financially strapped school system, which loses millions of dollars annually because the federal government does not fully cover the cost of educating military dependants living at Ft. Sheridan.
One of the first orders of business when the committee meets again Wednesday will be to start to integrate a redesigned golf course plan into the community.
“We will have two distinct features for the golf course,” said Steve Messerli, executive director of the Lake County Forest Preserve District. Part of the course will contain natural features such as native prairie plants, the other part that falls near the district will retain the historic flat terrain of the parade ground.
“It’s a balancing act,” Messerli said.
