The village of Palos Park, Ill., and the owners of the two golf properties hope the annexation ends a dispute between the village and the previously unincorporated Lemont Township, which has filed a petition to bring the properties within its boundaries.
The village of Palos Park, Ill., approved annexing the 46-acre Mid-Iron Golf Club and the 232-acre Gleneagles Country Club, both previously in unincorporated Lemont Township, the Chicago Tribune reported.
It was the latest phase of a plan by Palos Park to annex more than 1,400 acres, including Cog Hill Golf Club and the Ludwig family property. Owners of Mid-Iron and Gleneagles, as well as Palos Park officials, hope the move will render moot a petition filed on behalf of some residents seeking to bring them into Lemont—along with heading off a forced annexation into that community of a large section of Gleneagles, the Tribune reported.
A brief hearing on the Lemont petition, to which the Mid-Iron and Gleneagles owners are objecting, is scheduled for Wednesday in Cook County Circuit Court. The Sun Hill petition, filed December 11, would include about six acres of that subdivision and about 110 acres of the Gleneagles property directly to the west. To the north of McCarthy Road is Cog Hill, which wouldn’t be able to become part of Palos Park should the forced annexation of the northern portion of Gleneagles be approved, according to John Murphey, an attorney for Mid-Iron, the Tribune reported.
It’s anticipated that at some point, residential and commercial development could occur on some of the properties being annexed, which would be made more attractive for development with access to Lake Michigan water and sanitary sewer service. The McNulty family, which owns Gleneagles, has indicated that it would be several years before development would occur on that golf course; and the Jemsek family, owners of Cog Hill, have indicated it wants development that would enhance its golf course and make it more attractive to major golf tournaments, the Tribune reported.
One Palos Park resident, Bob Walsh, speaking at the brief special meeting after the annexations were approved, asked that the village council adopt some type of policy to ensure that any cost involved in extending utilities to all of the annexed properties be borne by those property owners. He said that he did not want to see residents saddled with the cost, the Tribune reported.
“There’s got to be a policy by this council stating that will not happen,” Walsh said. “It’s got to be addressed.”
Mayor John Mahoney said that a financial impact study of any potential development is planned, and officials have noted that any proposed development would need to go through a review process that would include public hearings, the Tribune reported.
Lemont officials have argued that the properties Palos Park has annexed, or plans to annex, are within Lemont’s long-range planning area, but owners of the properties have resisted efforts by Lemont to annex their land, the Tribune reported.
Toward the end of last year, Palos Park completed an annexation of 190 acres of Cook County Forest Preserve District property, giving it the required physical contiguity to the golf courses and other properties to annex them. The land bridge provided by the forest preserve property makes the process simpler for Palos Park, the Tribune reported.
Tell Us What You Think!
You must be logged in to post a comment.