The owners of Kemper Lakes Golf Course have filed a lawsuit against Hawthorn Woods in an attempt to halt the village's plans for a wastewater facility on their property.
United Land Development LLC is seeking to void an ordinance Hawthorn Woods passed to condemn roughly 30 acres of Kemper Lakes, which is in unincorporated Lake County.
United Land is currently finalizing plans with Kildeer for a golf course residential community in the area. The company had originally worked with Hawthorn Woods on the plan but then pulled out of the annexation proposal.
The lawsuit calls the village's plans "irrational, conspiratorial and vindictive," saying that Hawthorn Woods proposed the wastewater facility only to get back at United Land for backing out of the annexation deal.
"When we stopped talking to them, there was all of a sudden this need to have sewer facilities," said Bob Pugliese, one of the attorneys representing the golf course owners. "There is no question that this was done to get back at us."
Hawthorn Woods Village President Keith Hunt said the suit won't deter the village's plans.
"Anybody with 150 bucks and a typewriter can file a lawsuit," he said. "The real question is whether there's any merit to it. We aren't at all concerned."
Hawthorn Woods' plans call for portions of land on the east side of Kemper Lakes to house a spray wastewater system, which would irrigate the golf course with treated wastewater. The village passed an ordinance June 11 to forcibly take the Kemper Lakes land for this use.
The proposed project, located south of Old McHenry Road, would require construction of several ponds and underground pipes to clean the wastewater and then spray it on the golf course.
United Land says if a wastewater plant is put on its property, it will potentially lose current golf course members and put a halt on the demand for new memberships.
Source: Chicago Daily Herald