[BCNnet] FYI: Trib article on Wolf Road "Prairie at a crossroads"

[Randi Doeker - Chicago]

Fyi - Randi Doeker, Chicago

 

 

 

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Prairie at a crossroads 

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Westchester mulls nearby development

 

By Joseph Sjostrom

Tribune staff reporter

 

February 24, 2006

 

A plan to build 26 homes anywhere else might be just that, a plan to
build 26 homes, but on 10 acres next to what preservationists call one
of the "last open landscapes" in the state, things aren't so black and
white.

 

The conundrum over the Wolf Road Prairie in Westchester involves
developers, preservationists, the county Park District, the state
Department of Natural Resources, and the village.

 

"It's going to be very hard to come up with a good solution," said
Westchester Mayor Paul Gattuso. "I don't know what's the best course."

 

Even though the homes are not planned for land directly on the 80-acre
prairie, preservationists have been fighting to prevent any
development next to it. Co-owners--the Cook County Forest Preserve
District and the Illinois Department of Natural Resources--along with
the Save the Prairie Society hope to eventually expand the prairie and
use it for educational and observational purposes.

 

But the village, with a population of about 18,000, wants high-priced
housing to create a prosperous image that could help it compete with
other communities for needed commercial development.

 

And difficult or not, a decision will have to be made eventually. The
Plan Commission has approved a rezoning application from Palos
Heights-based Greene Development Group Inc. The Village Board meets
Tuesday, but Gattuso said he didn't know whether a vote would be
taken.

 

The 26-home Westchester Golf and Saddle Club is not the only building
project on the books for land near the prairie. Earlier this month, a
Cook County court judge ruled in favor of a developer seeking to build
a 384-unit senior citizen housing project about 300 yards west of the
prairie.

 

Neither project is a proven threat to the prairie's ecosystems. But
preservationists are evaluating options to keep them from becoming
reality.

 

"They're chipping away at a prairie that's already quite tiny," said
John Wagner of Brookfield, president of the volunteer group Save the
Prairie Society. "A prairie was originally an open landscape, which
doesn't really exist [in Illinois] anymore. Building on the prairie's
edges further reduces what we still have."

 

Wolf Road Prairie is made up of Illinois black dirt, wetland and oak
woods--largely its original ecology--and sits on the northwest corner
of 31st Street and Wolf Road. The owners and the support group hope to
expand it and have bought land to the west in a 60-acre residential
subdivision of mostly 5-acre lots.

 

The Forest Preserve District is negotiating to buy three lots there,
including one that constitutes half the land where Greene Development
Group wants to build homes, near the prairie's northwest corner.

 

Gattuso said the prairie is one of the village's main assets but that
Westchester also needs upscale housing such as the Greene project, in
which homes would cost from $485,000 to $650,000.

 

Westchester Plan Commission Chairman John Hahn said the plan was
acceptable on ecological and most design grounds.

 

"[The prairie] is a consideration, but no matter what would be done,
the prairie people would object to it. They want the whole area to be
preserved," Hahn said.

 

Patric Greene, of Greene Development, said an ecology consultant found
no prairie plants or animals on the 10 acres that he has applied to
develop, and that a wetland on part of the property would be donated
to the Save the Prairie Society.

 

"We're not building on the prairie and we're not going to affect any
of the flora on that land," he said.

 

The Army Corps of Engineers, which can veto developments on wetlands,
has asked Greene for more .

 

Greene was the original developer of a condominium project on 31st
Street west of the prairie, but has transferred his interest to
Orchard Hill Construction LLC. The Save the Prairie Society filed suit
in 2000 against Greene and subsequently against Orchard Hill to stop
that project on the grounds it would violate covenants established in
the 1940s that limit development of the land to one residence per five
acres.

 

After a trial in September, Cook County Judge Anthony L. Young ruled
earlier this month for the developers. His written opinion said that
because the society, the state Department of Natural Resources and the
Cook County Forest Preserve District had altered the character of the
property by acquiring lots there for educational events, public access
and open-space preservation, the covenants are no longer enforceable.

 

Save the Prairie Society leaders have not decided whether to appeal
the ruling.

 

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