The Northbrook Village Board of Trustees meeting on June 11 did not discuss a glaring resolution that may pertain to the shuttered Green Acres Country Club.
The 127-acre former Green Acres golf course (916 Dundee Road) was sold to the DuPage Water Commission (DWC) for $80 million on May 6, stunning Northbrook and Glencoe officials.
“I actually found out from the Village of Northbrook,” said Glencoe Village Manager (and former Northbrook and Deerfield assistant village manager) Philip A. Kiraly on June 14. “While we had had some conversations with the DuPage Water Commission … I had shared with them my understanding that the site was off the table. I was as shocked as anyone.”
This was the Dec. 2023 proposal for the former Green Acres Country Club site with forest open land, 10 acres for municipal fire station uses and the rest for a data center. Handout/Village of Northbrook
The DWC hopes to deliver Lake Michigan water using a large tunnel along railroad and state road easements to its one million DuPage County customers. Northbrook has two Lake Michigan (pipe) intakes in one spot, Kiraly said, but, “I don’t think it’s large enough” for the DWC to tap into Northbrook’s system.
“I would assume that they (DWC) would need to access the lake at some point, we have not had specific conversations about where that spot would be,” Kiraly said, adding routing, “would utilize public right of way in order to get west wherever west may be.
“It’s certainly not something that has been vetted enough to have clarity of what exactly it might look like or act like but it’s certainly something that we’re open-minded to discussing,” said Kiraly, who indicated Glencoe’s water plant is nearing 100 years old.
“We would be interested in having a dialogue,” Kiraly said. “We are continuing to explore our own options for our own water treatment plant.
“We’re open to concepts of partnerships.”
DuPage Water Commission response
The current pipes the DWC uses to bring water from the City of Chicago are 96 inches and future North Shore access tunneling, “would be that size or a little bigger,” DWC Board of Commissioners Chairman James F. Zay told Pioneer Press on June 12.
A senior living facility was among failed Green Acres pitches when the developer suddenly pulled out in May 2023. Then Northbrook trustees unanimously approved last Dec. 12 a non-binding pre-development agreement with Green Acres owner GA Northbrook LLC in legalese that did not prevent the sudden sale to the DWC.
The proposal then included 10 municipal acres for constructing a Dundee Road fire station, 50 open space acres for the Forest Preserves of Cook County, and 65 acres for a data center in land portions of estimated sizes.
So maybe it was no surprise that the June 11 consent agenda (where grouped items are voted on at once with no discussion) included a unanimously approved resolution for Village Manager Cara Pavlicek’s appointment of special legal counsel.
Two Chicago law firms, Neal & Leroy, LLC and Emry Murdoch LLC, are hired “to advise and represent the Village on eminent domain and land acquisition matters as the Village evaluates and pursues the courses of action available to it for acquiring land for the relocation of municipal facilities including fire, police, and public works facilities.”
Village of Northbrook response
Nicholas Glenn, the Village of Northbrook’s communications manager, would not elaborate except, “from time to time, the Village engages counsel to help conduct its business.
“There has been no status change in respect to the Green Acres land,” Glenn said, offering, “our public statement and FAQ.”
Later, when told about Zay’s commentary, Glenn said, “It’s almost like a game and we are not a player in that game.”
Zay said the DWC is waiting on Northbrook to respond after a recent Zoom meeting between Northbrook officials and the DWC.
“I’ve been pretty open from the beginning,” Zay said about the 10 acres ideally promised to Northbrook last December before the DWC sale.
“We knew that from the developer when we were going to buy the property and we don’t have a problem working with Northbrook on those 10 acres for the fire station,” Zay said. “We asked them for just an overlay of where they’re looking at, what they need.
“Obviously, this thing came together so fast, we have to do a master plan too to see if we’re going to build a plant, where it’s going to be.
“I don’t want to give them property where, A, it’s a problem with wetlands or anything like that or, B, we might need it for ComEd or something for the future, so, it’s just formality of us getting a site plan together and them getting us the information,” Zay said.
“I’ve been upfront with the village president (Kathryn L. Ciesla) that we want to work with them.
“We’re another government entity, and that’s our goal is to work with them on that 10 acres.
On Northbrook pursuing eminent domain for all 127 acres, “We’re another government body, they can’t do eminent domain on us,” Zay said.
Zay spoke of hearing Northbrook trying, “to float legislation to get eminent domain to take the property from us, but they can’t take it, they still have to buy it, that’s part of eminent domain, they have to pay market value for it,” Zay said.
“They can either work with us and we’ll give them the 10 acres, or they can go to eminent domain and have to pay us for it,” Zay said. “That’s up to them.
“When you do eminent domain on the entire property, you can’t use it for anything else except municipal use, so I don’t see them condemning the whole property.
But, “They haven’t told us that,” Zay said. “It’s our intention to work with them on that 10 acres and possibly more because they had said something about possibly a public works and a police station on that probably so we’re looking at the options there.”
The Northbrook Police headquarters (at Landwehr Road at Walters Avenue) and the Northbrook Fire administration and station building at 740 Dundee Road are identified as needing significant renovations.
If an eminent domain purchase attempt did play out, it would come after the Village of Northbrook bought the former Grainger property (1657 Shermer Road) in January 2018 for approximately $8 million. Critics say Northbrook did not do proper research in a bungled and costly conflict of interest attempt to unsuccessfully relocate Northbrook’s Metra station south to the 10.3-acre site.
The Grainger land remains undeveloped with a closing extension granted through Dec. 31 for developer Lennar/Quarterra, contract purchaser.
Zay hopes Northbrook does not push the Green Acres matter with State of Illinois lawmakers.
“We want to work with them,” Zay said. “If we do build a plant there, a fire station would be a great amenity for a use like ours.“We’re waiting for the Village to tell us what property they want. We’re looking at the northern half of the property.”
Zay added, “I think they’re not happy with us, but again, this is not a surprise, we came out with our study over a year ago.”
The DWC identified southern and northern access water routes into DuPage County and, “Our issue is with the City of Chicago and what they’re charging us (for water).”
At a DWC board meeting last April, Zay was serious about starting to look for property.
“And that’s when we talked with the developer, his willingness to sell to us surprised us because we had heard they were going to put data centers on it, we had thought it was tied up, but we were doing our due diligence.
“We bought this for proximity to the lake and because of the ComEd power there,” Zay said. “That was the main draw for us, it was so close to the lake and it’s got ComEd power already on the property, which, if we had to build it somewhere else, bringing the kind of power we need in, would cost us tens of millions of dollars.”
The next DWC board meeting in Elmhurst is June 20. Zay said Cara Pavlicek offered to attend but Glenn would not confirm if Pavlicek will be at the Butterfield Road meeting on June 20.
“They’re doing what they need to do for Northbrook,” Zay said. “We want to do the best with what we can with Northbrook and be a good neighbor.”
Karie Angell Luc is a freelancer for Pioneer Press.
