Three North Shore communities are staking claims to 24 acres of Ft. Sheridan for a controversial public works center and an elementary school.
The public works proposal pits suburbs against each other, but the school proposal is the result of cooperation between Highland Park Mayor Raymond Geraci and Highwood Mayor John Sirotti.
With the help of legislation sponsored by Rep. John Porter (R-Ill.), Lake Forest is pushing ahead with plans to build a public works complex on 14 acres at the northwest tip of the 700-acre fort.
Lake Forest officials appeared to retreat from the proposal earlier this year after area residents complained it would create heavy truck traffic and noise in an area of $1 million homes.
Porter amended a Defense Department authorization bill on May 18 authorizing the Secretary of the Army to sell the property to Lake Forest, said Porter’s press secretary, David Kohn. The measure passed the House and is in conference committee.
“The Army said it was willing to sell to Lake Forest,” Kohn said. “They are not getting it free.”
An Army spokesman confirmed there were negotiations, but no final agreement.
Geraci said he opposes the Lake Forest plan, adding that the Highland Park City Council unanimously adopted a resolution against it in April.
“It is incompatible,” said Geraci. “It is not appropriate to put a salt dome and an underground gasoline tank and garbage trucks opposite a (military) cemetery and a golf course and a nature preserve.”
The property now is used by the U.S. Army Reserve. Earlier this year, the Army turned over a 140-acre historic district to Highland Park and Highwood for housing development.
Geraci said he and Sirotti met Porter in May in an attempt to talk him out of supporting the Lake Forest plan. Lake Forest officials could not be reached for comment.
The second proposal to acquire 10 acres to replace Oak Terrace Elementary School in Highwood “is a tremendous breakthrough for the communities and the school district,” said Geraci.
Both Highland Park and Highwood send children to the school, he said.
Geraci and Sirotti met in May with Paul Johnson, a deputy secretary of the Army in Washington.
“Our primary objective was to see how the Army felt about giving the 10 acres for the school,” said Geraci. “They were extremely receptive and cooperative.”
Johnson encouraged the mayors to draft a memorandum of understanding that would serve as the basis for negotiations. The proposal is now before officials of North Shore School District 112.
“There will be an appraisal done,” said the mayor, and the Army might be willing to lease the property until acquisition by Highwood. Geraci said the process potentially could move very quickly to solve overcrowding at Oak Terrace.
The Highwood City Council got the process moving officially by voting to pursue the offer.
Highwood City Administrator Mark Rooney said such an acquisition would ease a longstanding sore point.
“There has been military housing there for 100 years and they haven’t paid property tax to pay their share to educate children from the military,” Rooney said.
Military families still occupy portions of the fort that are owned by the Defense Department.
The 10 acres is near the southwest end of the historic district, across the street from the North Shore Hotel Moraine in Highwood.
“We took the first step to start fact-finding,” said Rooney. “It is a worthy goal to try to do right by the school district.”
Highwood had long envisioned such an arrangement, said Rooney, but the Pentagon was not receptive.
“The Pentagon said `no,’ and now they are saying `maybe,’ ” he said.
