Battles always occur when the last wide-open spaces in a community are bought to be bulldozed, but the fight over the proposed development of the 200-acre Westgate Country Club in Palos Heights has taken several unusual turns.
Board members of a local elementary school district want to hold the developer liable for $3.6 million they say it will cost to build new classroom space for the children from the new homes.
Palos Heights Mayor Dean Koldenhoven, concerned his city may lose zoning and building code control over the biggest development ever planned next to its borders and millions of dollars of projected tax revenue, says the new school space is unnecessary.
Koldenhoven said the school board may be trying to torpedo the development.
In a highly unusual move, Koldenhoven has sent a letter to school board members, with a copy to each of the city’s more than 5,000 families, urging the school district to come to agreement with developer Donald Jeanes, who wants to annex the parcel to Palos Heights.
Without annexation of the proposed development, “the potential negative impact on the existing homes of this city could substantially depress home values,” Koldenhoven wrote.
“I cannot believe you and your board members, all of whom live in this city, could take a position so adverse to the economic interests of your fellow Palos Heights residents.”
In an interview, Koldenhoven said the board members “are shirking their responsibilities terribly.”
The battle is over differing estimates of what it will cost and who will pay to educate the children from such a large development.
Jeanes paid a reported $20 million for the 200-acre Westgate Country Club, adjacent to Palos Heights in unincorporated Cook County.
He has announced plans to build an upscale residential community consisting of 160 single-family residences selling for $450,000 to $500,000 each, and about 700 townhouses and condominiums priced from about $150,000 to $350,000. He also proposed a 15-acre business sector.
Board members of Elementary School District 128 say there is no room in the district’s schools for what they project as 300 additional children from the development.
They want Jeanes to put up an estimated $3.6 million to pay for additional space and infrastructure at the district’s four existing schools, one of which is not now being used by District 128 but is currently leased to High School District 230.
Jeanes, who also is mayor of Palos Park, has voluntarily offered to pay $800,000–about $400,000 more than he would be required by law to pay if he built in nearby Orland Park or his own, neighboring village.
He said the development would generate tax revenues over the next 10 years totaling about $10 million more than would be needed by District 128 to educate the children, as well as $28 million in total revenue for the city.
“I know for a fact that the project we’re building will not only support itself and the schools, but that there will be an excess of money to the school system,” Jeanes said.
The school board doesn’t believe him, saying that without the additional money it is demanding, each of its taxpayers would have to pay $2,000 more in taxes over the next 10 years to support the development.
Koldenhoven’s massive mailing is in response to a bold threat by the school board: If Jeanes refuses to pay the $3.6 million, the board would try to de-annex Westgate from District 128.
This would force children from the development to be bused to District 130, which serves Blue Island, Robbins and Crestwood. Officials from the larger, more racially and economically diverse District 130, reportedly are willing to consider the idea.
If de-annexation occurs, Jeanes said he would keep the development in unincorporated Cook County and design it differently to contain more multi-story units with more density–a move Koldenhoven says could hurt home values in Palos Heights.
Jeanes projects the proposed development would generate between 220 and 240 children–not the 300 the district computes under a widely used state formula.
The district now has 715 pupils, according to Supt. Ted Struck.
To accommodate the new students, Indian School, currently leased to District 230 for $125,000 annually, would be reopened; but Struck said there is room there for only 135 elementary pupils.
Koldenhoven also said Palos Heights is different from average communities and the state formula for projecting student populations should not apply.
He said nearby Oak Hills, which consists of 686 townhouses and condos, has only 50 children, not the 228 the state formula projected.
“Palos Heights is unique,” Koldenhoven said. “The state formula does not fit it. These kinds of town homes that are built in Palos Heights are not attracting families with children. They’re attracting empty-nesters who already raised their families.”
Westgate would take six to 10 years to complete, Koldenhoven said.
The increased pupil population could be assimilated over that time without additional costs to taxpayers by increased tax revenues from the development, by using Indian Hill School and increasing class size from the district’s average of 19.6, he said.
“The school board is screaming, `We can’t handle it,’ ” said Koldenhoven. “But like any development, there won’t be a surge of students; there will be a trickle. These are our last 200 acres, not our first 200.”
“It’s not like we have to build new schools for the future,” he said.
Struck said increased class sizes will result in “watered-down instructional time. In this community, the board has determined that small class size is important.”
He said comparisons with the student population in the Oak Hills townhouses are not necessarily valid, because the townhouses planned for Westgate are larger.
