Advisory group to debate Fort Sheridan's future

Lake County Forest Preserve District board President Bonnie Thomson Carter hopes a new committee formed to study the viability of golf at Fort Sheridan will conclude what she already has: Its time has passed.

Carter acknowledged that a deed restriction exists to have a golf course at For Sheridan, but "it no longer makes any financial sense," she said.

Carter is among the forest board members who think the economy and other factors have taken a serious toll on the golf industry and would make constructing a new course at the Highland Park-area preserve a costly mistake.

But some commissioners - and many vocal residents of the nearby Town of Fort Sheridan - insist the forest board should stick to a 2003 master plan that calls for a high-end golf course at the preserve.

That plan was partially based on the deed to the property, which was acquired from the U.S. Army with the stipulation that a golf course remain open there in perpetuity.

Forest district officials tore up the existing course in 2003 to make way for a new one, but that plan was scuttled in 2004 after updated cost estimates came in much higher than originally proposed.

The new committee, which was first proposed at a public meeting in May and was formally created this week, will re-evaluate the original development plan and study current golf trends, Carter said. If the group eventually decides golf isn't the way to go, it will make recommendations for a new master plan with alternative public amenities, she said.

Ideally, Carter said, the group will develop a revised master plan "everyone can agree to."

The committee will have representatives from several government agencies in the Fort Sheridan area, including the cities of Highland Park, Highwood and Lake Forest. The Highland Park and Lake Bluff park districts also will be represented, as will the Fort Sheridan Master Homeowners Association.

The forest board members representing the districts in that area - Susan Loving Gravenhorst of Lake Bluff, Michelle Feldman of Deerfield and Anne Flanigan Bassi of Highland Park - also will serve on the panel. The group will be led by forest district Commissioner Carol Calabresa of Libertyville.

Aside from the forest district commissioners, the group's members haven't been selected yet, Carter said.

Feldman strongly feels the board should honor its commitment to the Army, but she's also aware of today's economic realities.

"Does it make financial sense to do this?" she said. "I am totally open to what the best use is."

Meetings will be open to the public and could start this fall, but the process likely will be a long one. According to a forest district memo, it could be a year before the committee drafts a new master plan, if that's what it opts to do.