Mission Hills Group Vows to Continue Fight Against Red Seal Development

Photo via Mission Hills Openlands Facebook page.

Red Seal Homes have received approval from the Cook County Board to build 137 homes on the Mission Hills Country Club golf course, but one local group has vowed to fight it every step of the way.

Mission Hills Openlands, a group formed to protect the golf course, sent copies of a 124-page complaint about the process that led up to the project’s approval, the Northbrook Star reports. The complaint questions the roles of officials, including Commissioners Tim Schneider, R-Streamwood, and Peter Silvestri, R-Elmwood Park, and Cook County Zoning Board of Appeals Chairman Kevin Freeman, in the approval.

Openlands founder Karen Jump said the group wants an investigation, and then “a do-over.” Addressed to Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, the complaint official requests that the county stop the rezoning process related to Red Seal until the matter is investigated.

Schneider, another Openlands member says, should have recused himself due to a conflict of interest surrounding “the unusual precedent that the County Board vote may have created could help Schneider develop his own family’s golf course in a neighboring county.”

But Silvestri contends “there is nothing more to be done at the county level.”

“The proper remedy for disagreements with such decisions is now in the Circuit Court of Cook County,” he said in a statement.

Sales have already begun on the new Provenance homes, however, and Red Seal CEO Todd Fishbein says up to 600 jobs could be provided through the project, another claim the Openlands group contests.

The Red Seal topic is also a hot one on the group’s Facebook page, which recently posted:

“We hope that the Cook County Inspector General, Cook County Ethics Inspector General, and the U. S. Attorney will be able to uncover the truth behind the zoning process for Red Seal. P2 Open Lands are zoned to be open for a reason. Mission Hills is a P2 Open Lands Special Use PUD (planned unit development) on the county’s own maps.”

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