A group of suburban Homewood residents, who are among a larger group of south suburban activists seeking to stop the redevelopment of a struggling country club into a logistics hub, have secured a judge’s nod to step into a lawsuit between the country club’s owner and the village of Homewood, as the activists work to undo a lawsuit settlement their village’s elected leaders approved to potentially allow the development to move forward.
On April 1, Cook County Judge Maureen Kirby granted the petition from five Homewood village residents to intervene in the ongoing attempt by the owners of the former Calumet Country Club to win a court order allowing them to disconnect the property from the village of Homewood and move forward with a project that developers say will boost local tax revenues by millions and add hundreds of new jobs.
The petition was filed by attorney Patrick Keating, of Homewood, on behalf of named intervenors Elizabeth Varmecky, Casey Kueltzo, Danielle Nolen-Ragland, Kathryn Jakubowski and Carolyn Notorangelo.
The petition has been promoted by the anti-development activist group, identified as South Suburbs for Greenspace over Concrete. Varmecky is identified as a leader within that organization, as well.
“South Suburbs for Greenspace over Concrete (SSGOC) is proud to sponsor this precedent-setting, historic litigation defense, which can offer other communities a path for fighting environmental injustice because developers’ use of the disconnection statute to skirt municipal ordinances and zoning and the pitting of municipalities against each other is a common tactic,” the group said in a release following the judge’s order.
The group has vocally opposed the effort to redevelop the property, located near the busy junction of Dixie Highway and Interstates 80/294 in Cook County’s south suburbs.
The group pressured Homewood village officials for weeks to vote down the redevelopment, defying the terms of a legal settlement agreement those same village officials had approved just weeks earlier.
The owners of the Calumet Country Club and the village have been locked in a court fight over the fate of the land since 2019, when the owners sued, seeking disconnection.
The lawsuit was preceded by months of wrangling between a developer, identified as Diversified Partners, and the village over the fate of the property. The developers are seeking to build distribution centers and logistics facilities on the 130-acre property.
The village agreed a country club could no longer succeed on the property, but opposed the developer’s plans for the property. They repeatedly indicated they would reject the proposal.
The developer, however, has insisted the project is the only economically viable possibility for the site.
A tax valuation expert testified in court on behalf of the country club land owners that the project would add more than $2.8 million a year in new property tax revenue for local governments, with at least 70% of that going to local schools.
They further testified that the boost in tax revenue should decrease property tax bills for homeowners in the area by hundreds of dollars per year. Homeowners’ property tax bills in the area have increased by more than 60% in the last 10 years, according to data posted by the Cook County Clerk’s office.
The developer has estimated the project would add 1,000 new jobs to the local economy, as well.
After 18 months in court, the developer and the village reached a settlement agreement. In documents posted to the village’s website, Homewood officials said they believed the settlement option was their best change to maintain control of the property. The village indicated they believed they would lose in court.
In the settlement, the village agreed to grant approvals, including rezoning and the creation of a Tax Increment Financing District (TIF) to support the construction of infrastructure for the project.
However, when the project came for a vote, the village board, under pressure from the SSGOC activists, went against their own settlement agreement, and voted the development down.
The developer then moved forward with their plan to disconnect the property from Homewood, while extracting a $250,000 payment from the village for breaking the deal.
The activists, however, are seeking to shred that deal, saying they are “taking on the fight that Village Hall won’t.”
In their filing, the Homewood residents assert they are opposing the Calumet Country Club disconnection because of various “adverse effects” to Homewood that would allegedly follow the disconnection and redevelopment of the property. These include environmental problems, associated with the proposed industrial uses, “lowered property values … decreased roadway safety, a substantial reduction of greenspace and park land in the community, and a loss of faith in local government.”
The petition also asserts the disconnection would result in “increased taxes” on Homewood property owners, by shrinking Homewood’s tax base.
The petition does not address findings by the tax valuation consultant, indicating the opposite would be true.
Attorneys for the developers argued the petition to intervene came too late, as the case has been in court for nearly two years.
Judge Kirby, however, said the situation changed last fall, when the court allowed a corporate entity associated with the developer, known as W&E Ventures, to replace the country club’s former owners as plaintiffs in the action, to move the case toward settlement.
The judge said that essentially reset the clock, and should allow the residents to be added to the action, under the precedent set by a 1936 Illinois Supreme Court decision.
Kirby recognized the residents’ “unconditional right to intervene” at this time, as “they could not have realized that their interests were not being adequately represented by the Village of Homewood until January 2021, when the Village announced the terms of the settlement agreement to the public.”
In a draft order provided to the Cook County Record, the judge also would limit their ability to press their case, saying they cannot “plead new issues or join new parties.”
The judge gave the residents until April 22 to file a brief laying out their reasons for opposing the developers’ petition to disconnect the country club from the village.
In a prepared statement, Keating and attorney James Tunick, who is assisting with the case, said: “This was a very reasoned and equitable decision made by Judge Kirby which required a diligent review of all Illinois cases in this area of law.
“We look forward to trying this case.”