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

Bensenville Park District commissioners could fetch a hefty selling price from developers if the board moves in advance with a controversial proposal to promote a huge swath of the White Pines Golfing Club.

But many inhabitants in a leafy location adjacent to White Pines are teeing up a fight above the foreseeable future of the 36-hole community course.

The park district successfully lobbied for a alter in point out law making it possible for the sale of up to 125 acres of golf study course house. The below-the-radar legislation expires in January 2023, indicating any this kind of deal would very likely have to be accredited by the board months in progress.

Developers could shell out an eye-catching sum of cash for open land in a pink-incredibly hot industrial real estate marketplace close to O’Hare Worldwide Airport. A 30-12 months-outdated, two-tale household in the Mohawk Terrace community offered for $1.7 million previous summer months before developers demolished it — and the total subdivision of 106 homes — to make place for warehouse structures.

If the park district ended up to promote 125 acres of the White Pines land, park district Government Director Joseph Vallez mentioned, its benefit on the industrial market place “would be someplace all-around $100 million minimally.”

If that acreage were sold for residential redevelopment, by comparison, it could snag about “$20 million, perhaps a small little bit fewer,” Vallez reported.

But the nearby people termed it a money grab.

“We misplaced qualities to O’Hare so they could make runways,” claimed Chuck Rizzo, who lives close to the southeastern edge of the golfing course and noticed land surveyors in his yard a pair of months ago. “Now we are likely to give up far more nonindustrial belongings sold off to developers who are going to assistance 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 Middle gym partly to accommodate the turnout.

“We are meant to be including eco-friendly room — primarily mainly because we’re surrounded by O’Hare, we’re surrounded by the railroads,” Taraszka mentioned. “… They’re putting (the opportunity progress) in the center of our local community, which is unacceptable.”

Gina Mellenthin, a former park board member, also worries about the loss of greenery.

“The men and women of this spot took a enormous strike getting place nearer to O’Hare,” she reported. “So now your pollution barrier is a ton nearer than it was ahead of. At the very least we experienced the land all over it that could take in some of this. … There is certainly no 125 contiguous acres anywhere remaining in the location.”

White Pines experienced struggled to transform a gain right before municipal courses loved a surge in popularity all through the pandemic. But some people say the park district deferred servicing of White Pines and need to have stepped up advertising to raise the golfing enterprise.

The park district has been placing the stage for feasible redevelopment by finding out how to expend the profits that would be produced by advertising White Pines land. The board on Wednesday night was expected to retain the services of consultants for a sports activities sector assessment that could assist gauge the outlook for golfing and decide what leisure facilities and programming could benefit from an infusion of revenue.

“In the party that there was a sale, either through a residential development, light-weight industrial progress, or a combination of the two, 100% of people proceeds would go back again into the Bensenville Park District,” Vallez reported.

The district could probably use the proceeds to acquire the remaining 135 acres of White Pines into a new recreation facility less than a conceptual plan referred to as “Bensenville 2..”

“We did in this learn approach set a possible hotel, but all over again, that’s just a learn approach with visionary variety items,” Vallez reported.

He explained there are several options nonetheless on the table. The solution of performing almost nothing “leaves the park district in a precarious predicament, with roughly $7 million in funds replacements and advancements” that are unfunded, Vallez stated.

He supplied a timeline on when the park board may possibly make your mind up on a path: “probably 120 days prior to the expiration date on the laws.”

• Each day Herald staff members writer Scott C. Morgan contributed to this report