The mayors of Homewood and Hazel Crest publicly criticized one another this week ahead of a Homewood planning and zoning commission meeting in which plans are expected to be advanced for a new warehouse distribution center on the property of the former Calumet Country Club.
Homewood last month approved the basics of a settlement with Arizona developer Diversified Partners, owned by Walt Brown Jr. It includes a TIF district for the area, a Class 8 Cook County property tax assessment reduction and a $1 million advance on construction costs which would be reimbursed through the TIF. A public hearing to rezone the land “light manufacturing” is on the agenda for a meeting Thursday night.
Homewood officials, including Mayor Richard Hofeld, say the settlement was necessary to keep some control of the property. Diversified Partners had petitioned to disconnect from Homewood and seek annexation by Hazel Crest. Lawyers for Homewood did not expect to be able to prevent such a move in court.
In a video released Wednesday night, Hofeld said he spoke with Hazel Crest Mayor Vernard Alsberry three times about the situation, most recently in November. He said Alsberry initially said he “stood with” Homewood on the matter, but later said Hazel Crest would be “neutral.”
“Neutral does not mean standing with your neighbor,” Hofeld said.
The neighboring village’s neutral stance eroded Homewood’s leverage against the disconnection suit, according to Hofeld.
“Do we want this use? No. We had very little choice. It was, ‘give us what we’re going to receive from Hazel Crest or we’ll go to Hazel Crest.’ We then entered into a settlement agreement with the developer,” he said.
In a statement released Thursday, Alsberry said Homewood didn’t do enough to work with his town.
“The mayor of Homewood knew from the beginning that the owner of this property had the legal right to disconnect the property from Homewood. Rather than political posturing and wasting his taxpayers’ money on a losing court battle, Homewood should have realized that reality and worked with Hazel Crest and other southland communities,” Alsberry said.
Hofeld said Diversified Partners told the village late in 2020 that it had been having ongoing conversations with Hazel Crest. He said Hazel Crest was planning to give the developer a similar deal.
“The bottom line is Hazel Crest was ready to accept Calumet Country Club through the court’s action to disconnect from Homewood. If this was the case, Homewood would have no control over the proposed development,” Hofeld said. “Only Hazel Crest would, and the developer could put in whatever uses he desired which would be permitted by Hazel Crest.”
Alsberry criticized Homewood’s lack of communication about its dealings with the developer. He said Hofeld initially told him Diversified Partners planned to redevelop the property and discussed the possibility of Homewood purchasing the portion of the land owned by Hazel Crest along Dixie Highway.
Alsberry said he was contacted by and met with the owners of Calumet Country Club after his first meeting with Hofeld. He was asked about the disconnection and if he would support an intermodal trucking development. Alsberry said he couldn’t make any commitments without his board’s approval.
Alsberry said he then met with Hofeld, who told him at that point that because the developer wanted to use the property for truck carrier stacking, negotiations had broken down.
“I became neutral at that time, and I felt neither the village of Homewood, nor the developer, had the village of Hazel Crest or the southland’s best interest in mind,” Alsberry said. “The mayor of Homewood states over and over that the village of Hazel Crest should be a good neighbor and support Homewood. Not once has he suggested over the years that we partner together and work to bring something to the Calumet Country Club that we both could support and share the revenue from that partnership. The property is in his community.”
Alsberry’s scorn wasn’t limited to Hofeld, though. He also criticized Brown and his firm for advertising in trade magazines about the distribution warehouse before a deal had been made.
“In my opinion, the developer was never really serious about leaving the village of Homewood and only came to the village of Hazel Crest to use as a pawn in their desire to bring development into the village of Homewood,” Alsberry said.