Like gamblers in a high-stakes poker game, the three municipalities surrounding Ft. Sheridan put their cards on the table this week and talked about how each would slice up the luxurious swath of lakefront land.
At issue at Wednesday night’s meeting was where to draw the municipal boundary lines for the potentially lucrative housing that is being planned for the 700-acre former Army base.
If the communities and the county don’t reach a consensus on the boundaries quickly, they could lose their only chance-at least this year-of wiping out the military presence on the base.
A proposal by Chicago developer Richard Stein to redevelop 300 acres at the south end of Ft. Sheridan that are occupied by the Navy and Army Reserves must be approved by Congress.
Any legislation authorizing the Department of Defense to negotiate with Stein must be attached to the Defense Reauthorization Act, which must now be considered by the U.S. Senate.
Considered a long shot in the first place, the proposal will find it even tougher going in Washington unless there is a united front and backing by local communities, say officials. Stein wants to redevelop that land and provide the Navy and Army Reserves with new facilities elsewhere.
The communities made a little headway Wednesday when Highwood modified its controversial proposal to annex all of the unincorporated area at Ft. Sheridan, except the 290 acres of open space on the north end of the base. Highwood already has roughly 75 acres of the fort within its boundaries and wants at least 200 more. Highland Park has about 160 acres and covets the same 200 or so acres Highwood wants.
“I am hoping that we did make a little progress,” said Highwood Mayor John Sirotti. “At least we got the boundary issues out for discussion in an open meeting.”
Sirotti is a member of the Ft. Sheridan Joint Planning Committee, a consortium of the towns around the base plus the county working on a re-development plan for the fort. It was the committee that met Wednesday to try to thrash out an agreement.
Highwood city officials want the land to expand their tax base. In addition, they fear being swallowed up by their more powerful neighbors.
The alternate suggestion that Sirotti proposed would divide the fort into roughly three sections with the northern one-third being annexed into Lake Forest; the middle section and some of the southern section annexed into Highwood; and the southern end and part of the eastern zone into Highland Park.
Even under that proposal, the plan still would pit Highwood against Highland Park competing for about 200 acres of the same land.
Both Highwood and Highland Park want much of the Navy-occupied property as well as the coveted historic district, which includes 94 national landmark buildings that were designed by the architectural firm of Holabird and Roche before the turn of the century.
Highland Park officials are fearful that tiny Highwood, which doesn’t have the wealth of its neighbors, does not have the financial means to sustain and support any large new development which could increase the town’s population by more than half.
Highland Park officials point out that unlike their city, Highwood does not have a historic preservation society to set guidelines for redeveloping the historic area.
“Highland Park feels that it has all of the capabilities-financial and otherwise, particularly in historic preservation-to handle that difficult area,” said Mayor Ray Geraci, a member of the fort planning committee.
“We will do whatever it takes to help Highwood achieve its aspirations,” said Geraci on Thursday, “but we will not put in jeopardy the future of Ft. Sheridan, Lake Forest, Highland Park and the county.”
If Highwood grows too quickly and the new development fails, Geraci said, “It would be a disaster for everybody.”
But Highwood officials disagree, noting that they have hired a financial consultant and land planner to ensure that their plans are sound.
“I’m not going to spend money on a consultant just to blindly back up our position,” Sirotti said. “I don’t want to jeopardize Highwood for a dream that isn’t workable.”
All of the bickering is a “tremendous disapointment,” said County Commissioner Robert Buhai (D-Highland Park), also a committee member.
The advantages to wresting the entire base from the military are numerous, but perhaps most important to both Highlwnd Park and Highwood is reducing or eliminating the cost of educating the children of Navy personnel who now live on the base. Their joint school system loses $2 million annually because the federal aid to schools does not cover the full cost of tuition.
“Certainly we should have been able to get together and back the (Stein) legislation,” Buhai said, “in order to get school relief for both Highwood and Highland Park.”
