Fort Sheridan committee likes plan for 9-hole course

A proposal to build a nine-hole golf course and trails at the Fort Sheridan Forest Preserve near Highland Park received more support than any other option Wednesday night from the members of an advisory committee debating the issue for nearly a year.

The sentiment was far from unanimous, however. Some members of the committee formed last year by the Lake County Forest Preserve District board insisted an 18-hole golf course needs to be built at the site.

Other members said they'd prefer an 18-hole course but realize the odds of such an attraction actually being built are slim, because of its possible costs, the recession and the national decline in golf play. A nine-hole course is a compromise some of the committee members said they can live with.

“We support (this option) if that's all we can get,” said Ralph Pfaff, an outspoken golf proponent and leader of a homeowner association at the nearby Town of Fort Sheridan.

Committee member Anne Flanigan Bassi, who also serves on the forest board, supported the so-called hybrid proposal. She described the option as a fiscally responsible way to comply in good faith with the commitment that was made.”

After more than three hours of discussion, the 10-member committee agreed to recommend the forest district board seek construction proposals for the hybrid project. The proposals would be sent to golf management companies with the idea that the firms finance, construct and operate the proposed course.

An 18-hole layout was part of the roughly 250-acre property when the district acquired it from the Army in the 1990s. The deal included a promise to keep a golf course open at Fort Sheridan forever.

That course was torn up in 2003 to make way for a planned high-end course, but the project was scuttled after cost estimates came in millions of dollars higher than originally discussed.

Officials have estimated the proposed nine-hole course and the other amenities could cost $14.3 million to build.