Bensenville neighbors tee up fight over White Pines land sale as park district eyes big money

Bensenville Park District commissioners could fetch a hefty value from developers if the board moves forward with a controversial proposal to sell a huge swath of the White Pines Golf Club.

But many people in a leafy area adjacent to White Pines are teeing up a struggle above the foreseeable future of the 36-hole general public study course.

The park district correctly lobbied for a change in state law allowing the sale of up to 125 acres of golf system house. The under-the-radar legislation expires in January 2023, which means any such offer would very likely have to be authorized by the board months in progress.

Developers could shell out an eye-catching sum of revenue for open land in a purple-very hot industrial actual estate market all around O’Hare International Airport. A 30-calendar year-aged, two-tale dwelling in the Mohawk Terrace community sold for $1.7 million last summer season in advance of builders demolished it — and the entire subdivision of 106 residences — to make area for warehouse structures.

If the park district have been to market 125 acres of the White Pines land, park district Executive Director Joseph Vallez said, its value on the industrial industry “would be somewhere all over $100 million minimally.”

If that acreage had been marketed for residential redevelopment, by comparison, it could snag approximately “$20 million, perhaps a tiny little bit considerably less,” Vallez stated.

But the nearby people named it a funds get.

“We shed properties to O’Hare so they could construct runways,” explained Chuck Rizzo, who life close to the southeastern edge of the golf course and spotted land surveyors in his yard a few of months in the past. “Now we’re likely to give up much more nonindustrial assets bought off to developers who are heading to provider the airport once more. We’re finding squeezed from the north and the south.”

Janell Taraszka aided rally dozens of neighbors who confirmed up at a park board meeting Wednesday to protest a land sale. The meeting was moved to the Deer Grove Leisure Centre fitness center partly to accommodate the turnout.

“We’re meant to be incorporating green room — primarily mainly because we’re surrounded by O’Hare, we are surrounded by the railroads,” Taraszka explained. “… They’re placing (the probable improvement) in the middle of our group, which is unacceptable.”

Gina Mellenthin, a previous park board member, also worries about the decline of greenery.

“The individuals of this place took a enormous hit getting place closer to O’Hare,” she said. “So now your pollution barrier is a large amount nearer than it was prior to. At minimum we had the land all over it that could take up some of this. … There is certainly no 125 contiguous acres everywhere left in the region.”

White Pines had struggled to transform a profit in advance of municipal courses savored a surge in level of popularity for the duration of the pandemic. But some people say the park district deferred routine maintenance of White Pines and should really have stepped up marketing to enhance the golf business enterprise.

The park district has been location the phase for feasible redevelopment by studying how to devote the earnings that would be generated by promoting White Pines land. The board on Wednesday evening was anticipated to hire consultants for a athletics market place assessment that could assist gauge the outlook for golf and decide what recreational amenities and programming could benefit from an infusion of money.

“In the event that there was a sale, either through a residential advancement, mild industrial enhancement, or a mixture of the two, 100% of those proceeds would go back into the Bensenville Park District,” Vallez stated.

The district could possibly use the proceeds to build the remaining 135 acres of White Pines into a new recreation facility below a conceptual prepare known as “Bensenville 2..”

“We did in this grasp program set a prospective resort, but all over again, which is just a grasp approach with visionary style factors,” Vallez mentioned.

He stated there are lots of options even now on the table. The choice of performing absolutely nothing “leaves the park district in a precarious problem, with approximately $7 million in capital replacements and advancements” that are unfunded, Vallez said.

He made available a timeline on when the park board might come to a decision on a path: “likely 120 days prior to the expiration date on the legislation.”

• Daily Herald team author Scott C. Morgan contributed to this report