Lake Villa Township moves on after golf course defeat
With the proposed purchase of the Antioch Golf Club soundly rejected Monday, Lake Villa Township officials have moved on and a new operator is working to improve the course and its facilities.
"This is officially the end of the township pursuing the property," Supervisor Dan Venturi posted on the township website Tuesday morning.
The message followed a lopsided vote against a township purchase of the course, clubhouse, facilities and equipment during a special meeting Monday night.
"Townships are unique in that to purchase real estate they need more than just a public hearing followed by a board vote, the electors actually vote on the purchase and that vote is controlling" Venturi wrote. "Here they voted no!"
Venturi and the township board described the 99-acre property at Route 59 and Grass Lake Road as a diamond in the rough and potential resource that would be worth a $750,000 investment from reserves.
But an estimated 1,000 township residents who jammed the Lake Villa Township West Campus Center thought differently and rejected the idea with 128 in favor and 716 against.
The course has been operating at a deficit of about $85,000, but the township hoped to turn that around and increase the use of the banquet hall and restaurant as a center for community events.
"It's a lot of resources, a lot of assets for a very reasonable price," Venturi said during the meeting Monday.
Part of the opposition involved shifting the $31,000 in real estate taxes paid by the course annually to other taxpayers if the township acquired the property, making it tax exempt. The argument that it would amount to $1.75 more in taxes on a home valued at $200,000 didn't hold up.
"It was a narrative I was never able to get away from," Venturi said.
State Rep. Sam Yingling, whose district includes part of Lake Villa Township, issued a statement Tuesday indicating he was not surprised at the outcome of Monday's vote.
The former Avon Township supervisor said township governments face "well-deserved scrutiny for unwise use of public funds" and that "residents are sick and tired of townships wasting taxpayer dollars."
Antioch Golf Club remains for sale at an asking price of $950,000, according to a course sales site. The listing broker was not available Tuesday to discuss potential interest.
Venturi said he hopes the publicity created by the township's unsuccessful effort brings the course to the attention of possible buyers.
"Hopefully the heightened awareness of the Antioch Golf Course property will bring in investors interested in it as an 18-hole golf course and banquet facility," he wrote on the township website. "This would provide relief to the golf course homeowners and not burden the township taxpayers."
Meanwhile, Mundelein-based GolfVisions Management Inc., assumed operations of the course May 1.
"Our objective is to put the house in order," company owner Tim Miles said. That includes ramping up marketing and making improvements to the course and facilities, including the clubhouse, banquet facility and a tent that can hold 200.
"There is a very good potential to house a lot of special events there," Miles said.