Hazel Crest officials say they are supportive of the “concept” of working with other governmental agencies concerning a possible redevelopment of a former country club recently disconnected from neighboring Homewood.

Hazel Crest borders the former Calumet Country Club, northwest of 175th Street and Dixie Highway, on three sides, and a sliver of the golf course is in that suburb.

The Homewood Village Board rejected plans by owner Diversified Partners to redevelop the nearly 130-acre property for warehouse and distribution uses, and a month ago allowed the property, annexed to Homewood in 1980, to be disconnected from the village.

In allowing the disconnection, Homewood officials adopted a resolution calling on neighboring Hazel Crest to cooperate with Homewood in derailing any redevelopment that would “adversely affect” both communities.

Hazel Crest elected officials had previously said they would not welcome the warehouse development.

The Hazel Crest Village Board approved a resolution Tuesday expressing support for the concept of intergovernmental cooperation with Homewood as well as other “interested governmental bodies in connection with any potential future development” of the property. For now, the site is floating on its own, although Homewood officials had maintained that once disconnected from their village, Diversified Partners would have no other option than to seek annexation to Hazel Crest.

In mid-February, Hazel Crest officials, including Mayor Vernard Alsberry, stated after a closed-door Village Board session they had no intention of welcoming the development, with Alsberry saying “we do not believe it is in the best interests of our region.”

He said at the time that municipal governments “must work together to maintain access to open space.”

“We do not want to do business with this developer,” Alsberry said.

Following an April 13 vote by Homewood’s Village Board to permit the disconnection, a Cook County Circuit Court judge ruled April 23 that a lawsuit seeking to disconnect the property could be withdrawn.

The judge’s decision effectively ended an attempt by a group of Homewood residents to intervene in the disconnection lawsuit, filed in July 2019 by the previous owners of the golf course. Diversified continued the disconnection case after purchasing the property for $3.3 million last fall.

The Arizona-based company has proposed building up to 800,000 square feet of warehouse and distribution space,

which Homewood residents who live nearby said could affect their home values and create increased truck traffic and pollution.

At a series of meetings of Homewood’s Planning and Zoning Commission, representatives of Diversified said that logistics operations were the best use for the property, and that there was no interest in the site from retailers or homebuilders.

mnolan@tribpub.com