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<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=2 face="Comic Sans MS"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS"'>Fyi - Randi Doeker, Chicago<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt'>--------------------<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt'>Prairie at a crossroads <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt'>--------------------<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><st1:place w:st="on"><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt'>Westchester</span></font></st1:place> mulls nearby
development<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt'>By Joseph Sjostrom<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt'>Tribune staff reporter<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt'>February 24, 2006<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt'>A plan to build 26 homes anywhere else might be just that, a plan to
build 26 homes, but on 10 acres next to what preservationists call one of the
"last open landscapes" in the state, things aren't so black and white.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt'>The conundrum over the Wolf Road Prairie in <st1:place w:st="on">Westchester</st1:place>
involves developers, preservationists, the county Park District, the state
Department of Natural Resources, and the village.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt'>"It's going to be very hard to come up with a good solution,"
said Westchester Mayor Paul Gattuso. "I don't know what's the best
course."<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt'>Even though the homes are not planned for land directly on the 80-acre
prairie, preservationists have been fighting to prevent any development next to
it. Co-owners--the Cook County Forest Preserve District and the Illinois
Department of Natural Resources--along with the Save the Prairie Society hope
to eventually expand the prairie and use it for educational and observational
purposes.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt'>But the village, with a population of about 18,000, wants high-priced
housing to create a prosperous image that could help it compete with other
communities for needed commercial development.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt'>And difficult or not, a decision will have to be made eventually. The
Plan Commission has approved a rezoning application from Palos Heights-based
Greene Development Group Inc. The Village Board meets Tuesday, but Gattuso said
he didn't know whether a vote would be taken.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt'>The 26-home Westchester Golf and Saddle Club is not the only building
project on the books for land near the prairie. Earlier this month, a Cook
County court judge ruled in favor of a developer seeking to build a 384-unit
senior citizen housing project about 300 yards west of the prairie.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt'>Neither project is a proven threat to the prairie's ecosystems. But
preservationists are evaluating options to keep them from becoming reality.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt'>"They're chipping away at a prairie that's already quite
tiny," said John Wagner of <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Brookfield</st1:place></st1:City>,
president of the volunteer group Save the Prairie Society. "A prairie was
originally an open landscape, which doesn't really exist [in <st1:State w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Illinois</st1:place></st1:State>] anymore. Building on the prairie's
edges further reduces what we still have."<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt'>Wolf Road Prairie is made up of <st1:State w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Illinois</st1:place></st1:State>
black dirt, wetland and oak woods--largely its original ecology--and sits on
the northwest corner of <st1:Street w:st="on"><st1:address w:st="on">31st
Street</st1:address></st1:Street> and <st1:Street w:st="on"><st1:address
w:st="on">Wolf Road</st1:address></st1:Street>. The owners and the support
group hope to expand it and have bought land to the west in a 60-acre
residential subdivision of mostly 5-acre lots.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt'>The Forest Preserve District is negotiating to buy three lots there,
including one that constitutes half the land where Greene Development Group
wants to build homes, near the prairie's northwest corner.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt'>Gattuso said the prairie is one of the village's main assets but that <st1:place
w:st="on">Westchester</st1:place> also needs upscale housing such as the Greene
project, in which homes would cost from $485,000 to $650,000.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt'>Westchester Plan Commission Chairman John Hahn said the plan was
acceptable on ecological and most design grounds.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt'>"[The prairie] is a consideration, but no matter what would be
done, the prairie people would object to it. They want the whole area to be
preserved," Hahn said.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt'>Patric Greene, of Greene Development, said an ecology consultant found
no prairie plants or animals on the 10 acres that he has applied to develop,
and that a wetland on part of the property would be donated to the Save the
Prairie Society.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt'>"We're not building on the prairie and we're not going to affect
any of the flora on that land," he said.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt'>The Army Corps of Engineers, which can veto developments on wetlands,
has asked Greene for more .<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt'>Greene was the original developer of a condominium project on <st1:Street
w:st="on"><st1:address w:st="on">31st Street west</st1:address></st1:Street> of
the prairie, but has transferred his interest to Orchard Hill Construction LLC.
The Save the Prairie Society filed suit in 2000 against Greene and subsequently
against Orchard Hill to stop that project on the grounds it would violate
covenants established in the 1940s that limit development of the land to one
residence per five acres.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt'>After a trial in September, Cook County Judge Anthony L. Young ruled
earlier this month for the developers. His written opinion said that because
the society, the state Department of Natural Resources and the Cook County
Forest Preserve District had altered the character of the property by acquiring
lots there for educational events, public access and open-space preservation,
the covenants are no longer enforceable.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt'>Save the Prairie Society leaders have not decided whether to appeal the
ruling.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
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