A land developer seeking to build a new transportation and logistics hub on the site of a defunct Homewood country club has beaten the legal effort to block the developer from moving forward with their project, with or without approval from the leaders of the country club’s former south suburban community.
On April 23, Cook County Circuit Judge Maureen Ward Kirby granted the request from the group known as W&E Ventures to dismiss the legal action in which they had been entangled for nearly two years against the village of Homewood over the fate of the Calumet Country Club.
Kirby granted the dismissal in a brief hearing conducted remotely over streaming service Zoom.
Patrick J. Keating
| keating.law
During the hearing, the judge refused to consider objections from a group of anti-development activists, who had intervened in the legal action, seeking to undo a settlement agreement between the country club owners and the village.
The dismissal all but ends the litigation surrounding the disconnection of the 130-acre Calumet Country Club. It began in July 2019, when the former owners of the country club, filed a petition in Cook County court, seeking an order forcing Homewood village officials to allow them to remove the country club from Homewood.
The country club owners filed their petition after Homewood village officials repeatedly refused to consider their plans to allow a developer to invest $100 million into the property, to convert the land into a warehouse and distribution hub.
Developers have said the project would add 1,000 jobs to the region, and create a significant source of new property tax revenue for local school districts and other local governments, potentially reducing the tax burden on homeowners by hundreds of dollars annually.
Aside from the economic benefits, developers have insisted the project is the only viable use of the property, which is located just off Interstates 80/294, one of the busiest trucking corridors in Illinois and the U.S.
While the legal action continued, the former country club owners completed a deal with developers Diversified Partners, of Scottsdale, Ariz., to purchase the property, allowing the local corporate entity, W&E Ventures, to continue the lawsuit against the village.
After more than 18 months in court, the village and W&E Ventures reached a settlement agreement. In that settlement, the village agreed to either approve the development, or allow the property owners to disconnect the property from the village and seek to complete their project outside Homewood.
In introducing the settlement, village officials maintained their opposition to the project, but said they believed the developers would win in court. They said they believed allowing the project to move forward within the village would at least allow Homewood to control certain aspects of the project, and reap some of the economic benefits.
However, Homewood village officials ultimately rejected the development, bowing to pressure from a group of activists who called the project an example of “environmental racism.” They have said they believe the country club should be preserved as a park or “open space.”
As village officials rejected the development, the activists then joined the court fight, with a group of five Homewood residents intervening as taxpayers to seek a court order preventing Homewood’s elected officials from honoring the settlement.
The activists contended “their interests were not being adequately represented by the village of Homewood.”
While the judge allowed the residents to intervene in court, she refused their attempt to void the settlement agreement. The village board then approved an ordinance on April 13 disconnecting the Calumet Club property from Homewood.
Two days later, the developers asked the judge for permission to dismiss their legal action.
That request was opposed by the activists. They asserted their intervention in the action should require the village to first get their permission for any settlement or dismissal.
The judge refused to hear their objections.
Attorneys for the developers declined comment on the decision.
Walt Brown Jr., president of Diversified Partners, said the country club redevelopment site is now “a free agent.”
“We’re proud of what our team did, and we’ve always believed we had a great case, from the very start,” said Brown.
“Now, we’re excited to get started on bringing a great development to the community, at the right time,” he said.
Keating said the anti-development activists believe the judge was “simply wrong in failing to consider that our entry as intervenors effectively voided the prior settlement agreement.”
However, he conceded the options on appeal are limited, as the judge’s order merely granted the request of the developer – the plaintiff, in this action – to voluntarily withdraw their lawsuit.
Keating said the activists intend to continue fighting the project, “so we will redeploy our resources to wherever the next battle arises.”
W&E Ventures has been represented by attorneys with the firms of Sosin Arnold & Schoenbeck, of Orland Park, and Burke Warren MacKay & Serritella, of Chicago.