Dozens of residents gathered at the Markham Courthouse to share input and hear from the county about potential uses of the former Oak Forest Hospital site.
The 150-acre, county-owned property at 159th Street and Cicero Avenue, close to Oak Forest’s Metra stop, is in the midst of a multiyear demolition project planned to take until 2028.
“Whatever we do here, across all of these other objectives, should enhance the overall community, promote the social, environmental and economic welfare of the community,” said Tim Brangle of the Chicago Consultants Studio, which is working with the Cook County Bureau of Asset Management on the project.
Brangle said the county is looking at preserving the core of the hospital campus and saving some of its historic buildings. The property is large enough that whatever the final plan is will likely combine a variety of uses, he said.
“Having 150 acres, continuous acres, all together as one site under one ownership is very powerful,” Brangle said.
A general outline Brangle presented would preserve the core hospital campus layout for mixed use at the center of the site, and locate anchor developments to the north and south, such as potentially an amphitheater or a light industrial development.
Many ideas involve somehow incorporating the mission of the old hospital.
“Things that might be in theme, if you will, with this idea of health, wellness and what the old mission of the campus was, how we reinvent that,” Brangle said. “Maybe through hydroponics, maybe through a demonstration project that is state-of-the-art, farming or even solar.”
The property is surrounded by public green space, with Midlothian Meadows to the north, Oak Forest Heritage Perserve to the east and St. Mihiel Woods to the west.
Brangle referred to the site as the “hole in the doughnut,” suggesting it could be better incorporated into the network of forest preserves that crosses the south suburbs.
“I think we have every opportunity to knit this whole thing together,” said Brangle. “Really thinking about how we interface better or connect better with the forest preserve, with the Oak Forest Heritage Preserve and the like, this really becomes that connective tissue.”
The property is on the edge of Oak Forest and is also close to Midlothian, Markham, Tinley Park and Country Club Hills.
Attendees at Wednesday’s meeting were asked to fill a survey regarding their priorities for the site.
“Ultimately they’re the residents that live here, work here, breathe here, invest here, die here,” Brangle said. “They know this site.”
Oak Forest Mayor Jim Hortsman, who attended the meeting, said when he was younger and lived in Chicago, he remembered the hospital campus, which also served as an educational facility, being a major draw to Oak Forest.
“We used to come out to Oak Forest because it had really nice restaurants and all that, but it was all drawn by this facility,” Hortsman said. “After four years we came back and we bought our first house here in Oak Forest, and then all the stuff was gone.”
He said he’d like to see the property become that sort of draw to the community again.
“People coming here, learning a craft, getting involved in that facility, coming and going on the train if they want,” Hortsman said. “They’ll have to leave the campus to go find something to eat, or go buy groceries or something. That’s what I was hoping.”
Former Oak Forest Ald. Denise Danihel said she liked the idea of creating a community and program to provide work for adults with developmental disabilities on the property.
“I worked with disabled students. Once they turn 22 and they start getting into being an adult, there’s not a lot of opportunities for them,” Danihel said. “Something like that to sustain the property, and that can work the property, I think would be great.”
She said she didn’t think construction of new housing supply should be a priority for the property.
“What Oak Forest mostly has is housing. We don’t have a lot of business, we don’t have a lot of revenue coming in from business,” Danihel said. “I like the idea of maybe having like, a community where you can do the concerts, and you can do plays.”
Cook County Commissioner Kisha McCaskill said she hoped to see the site become an economic driver for the area.
“In order to move the Southland forward, we really need to start working on economic development that is going to produce long-term revenue,” McCaskill said.
Several features are planned to be preserved no matter what: three historic places of worship, a graveyard and an oak savanna that occupies one corner of the property.
“The oak savanna that’s on the corner is one of the great parts of this site, and that will stay,” said Jamie Meyers of the county Bureau of Asset Management. “We’re not going to touch that. That will become incorporated into whatever that future design is.”
Bob and Diane Hendricks said they have lived in Oak Forest near the hospital campus their whole lives and are very familiar with the property.
“We’ve been to all of the presentations over the years,” said Bob Hendricks. “And we’ll come to the next one.”
To them, preserving the history of the site and making it available to the public is a priority.
“Having grown up here, we want to see it continue to be something,” Bob Hendricks said.
elewis@chicagotribune.com
