Chicago City Wire

If the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District (MWRD) approves a request by developer Dick Keefe Development Corporation, taxpayers will be on the hook for approximately $700,000 and a road would rip through Canal Shores Golf Course, according to the spokesman for the golf course.

MWRD is to vote on the request Nov. 15. 

Barry Cronin, the spokesman for Canal Shores, told the Chicago City Wire that if approved, the 426-foot road would destroy the 10th hole and turn the golf course into a 17-hole course.

Map of proposed road through golf course | provided by spokesman Barry Cronin

Canal Shores is a public, not-for-profit golf course. Dick Keefe Development wants to build the road in order to build four $1 million homes on the property that it owns adjacent to the golf course. The property has never been accessible from nearby streets.

Cronin said Canal Shores hopes the board does the right thing and votes no on the proposal.

"The golf community, environmentalists and neighbors are relying on the board to do the logical and morally correct thing and reject this proposal that would result in a road being built on the 10th fairway of Canal Shores Golf Course," Cronin said..

Cronin said a vote in favor is a vote to destroy an 18-hole public golf course that has been part of the community since 1919.

"The only reason anyone would vote yes on this issue is because of dirty politics," Cronin said.

Illinois Senate President John Cullerton (D-Chicago), the lawyer for Keefe, has an ownership interest in the Dick Keefe Development Corporation, according to a press release issued by the golf course.

Cronin said municipalities, residents and golfers oppose the road being built through the golf course.

In addition to building the road, the Cook County Department of Transportation and Highways also would incur the cost of maintaining it and the area to be paved contains environmentally sensitive wetlands as well as 100-year-old trees, according to a press release by the golf course.