Public divided over Fort Sheridan golf plan

A much-anticipated discussion about whether a new golf course should be built at the Fort Sheridan Forest Preserve revealed area residents remain divided about the proposition.

Most people who spoke Friday at a lengthy Lake County Forest Preserve District board meeting opposed the idea of golf at the site, which is near Highland Park and overlooks Lake Michigan. The recession, a declining golf industry and environmental concerns were among the most common arguments against creating a new layout at the 259-acre preserve.

"Everybody knows times have definitely changed," said Carrie Travers, a resident of the neighboring Town of Fort Sheridan who opposes golf at the preserve. "We do not have the tens of millions of dollars to spend on a golf course today."

But a nearly equal number of people, including many Town of Fort Sheridan residents, implored the forest board to honor a roughly decade-old commitment to operate a golf course at the preserve.

Forest commissioners were split, too. Many said the district needs to keep its promise to the U.S. Army operate a course there in perpetuity, but few favored the high-end course initially planned.

"If we build a golf course there it should be for all of Lake County," said Commissioner Mary Ross Cunningham, a Waukegan Democrat. "Everyone should afford it."

More than 100 people attended the six-hour meeting at Greenbelt Cultural Center near North Chicago. Forest district officials stressed it was just the start of the debate on the issue.

The forest district acquired the preserve from the Army about a decade ago. A different part of the fort, which closed in 1989, was turned into the Town of Fort Sheridan.

The fort's 18-hole golf course was part of the land given to the forest district. A master plan approved in 2003 called for the course to be torn up and replaced by a high-end layout, but the effort was put on hold - after the course was removed - because cost estimates came dramatically higher than expected.

Building a golf course now could cost $25 million or more, forest district reports indicate.

Of the dozens of people who spoke Friday, many said it's fiscally foolish to build and operate a new course today because of the recession and the golf industry's financial problems, which have been worsening for years.

"2009 is not 1996," Highland Park resident Sonny Cohen said, referring to a time when the golf industry was doing better. "We're here to tell you: Don't do it."

Many audience members took the opposite view. Among them was a plumber who said the project would be good for workers in his trade, and town residents who said they were promised a course would be part of their neighborhood.

When it was their time to debate, many board members stressed the importance of keeping the promise to have a course.

But board President Bonnie Thomson Carter said the panel must be open to change.

"Conditions are different than what they were," said Carter, an Ingleside Republican. "I don't believe for one minute that we're going to find an 18-hole course that's affordable."

Carter suggested talking to the village leaders in the area and local residents in search of a compromise.