This story is the fourth and last in a series.
Homewood Mayor Rich Hofeld sent a letter to Hazel Crest Mayor Vernard Alsberry on Tuesday, Feb. 14, urging him to reject a request to annex the land of the former Calumet Country Club into the village.
He briefly recounted the history of the redevelopment project as presented to Homewood officials. Like the Catalyst Consulting concept, the early proposals to Homewood included a variety of commercial and industrial uses, but after going through a series of changes, the final plan as presented was dominated by warehousing.
“When presented to the Homewood Village Board it was not a good development for Homewood, negatively impacting Hazel Crest and East Hazel Crest,” Hofeld said. “Although some of the iterations have changed it is still not a good development; now it is not a good development for Hazel Crest while continuing to negatively impact Homewood and East Hazel Crest.
“Representing a neighboring village I encourage you not to support the Calumet Country Club proposal plan.”
The letter was the second from Hofeld to Hazel Crest officials. In July 2019, five days after a lawsuit was filed by the previous property owners of the country club to force disconnection from the village, Hofeld wrote to the Hazel Crest board asking its support in resisting the industrial redevelopment of the property.
A few weeks after the property was disconnected from Homewood, both village boards passed resolutions committing to work together to promote a redevelopment plan that would satisfy the needs of both villages. No talks between village officials on that subject have occurred.
South Suburbs for Greenspace leader Liz Varmecky thanked Hofeld for expressing his views to Hazel Crest officials.
“I’m really appreciative of Mayor Hofeld’s letter,” she said. “Obviously he has the best interest of the Southland in his mind.”