Alan Kanaby
Alan Kanabay, President of the Turnberry Property Owners Association sent out the following email at 8:13 last night to members on Tuesday after the village issued a press release on the massive enlargement of the Turnberry Country Club. It has some interesting background information.
Good Evening,
On Wednesday December 16 at 7:30 PM the regularly scheduled fourth-quarter meeting of the TPA Membership will be held at Turnberry Country Club.
In preparation for the quarterly meeting, the TPA Board routinely meets a few days prior to set the agenda as well as prepare for presentations and action items.
This meeting occurred at President Alan Kanabay’s residence on Sunday December 13.
On Sunday afternoon (just prior to our executive Board meeting), Village of Lakewood President Erin Smith and Trustee Gene Furry contacted the directors and asked if they could address the Board.
We agreed, and at that meeting they announced the potential sale of Turnberry Country Club to be redeveloped into Turnberry Resort and Spa.
In addition to 240 condominiums, there will be 60 guest rooms.
Erin Smith at the SportsPlex meeting.
This includes an expansion to include 240 condominiums housed in three and four story buildings, plus
- a hotel and spa
- health club
- swimming pools
- a full service r
- banquet facilities
- underground parking,
and more to be built on the existing Turnberry Country Club property.
This was the first time the Board became aware of this project, and after many questions, the Board was provided with the specifics listed above, which are in the attached press release.
Other information disclosed to the Board included an artist rendering, name of the developer, and architecture firm, also given in the attached press release.
Since the fourth-quarter meeting of the TPA had already been scheduled and posted on the TPA website, the Board agreed to allow Erin Smith to address the neighbors regarding the potential land-development project at this resident meeting facilitated by TPA. This announcement will be at the conclusion of the TPA meeting.
The TPA Board has not taken a position on this plan due to the lack of factual information and as a result has only committed to the Village to serve as a means to disseminate this information at this time.
Attached is the release from the Village and the Developer to the public – the TPA Board was not offered the opportunity to review and comment on the release prior to its dissemination to the general public.
I hope to see you at the fourth-quarter meeting of the TPA on December 16, 7:30 p.m. at Turnberry Country Club. Please urge your neighbors to join you.
After a brief TPA meeting, the remainder of the meeting will be dedicated to the announcement regarding this project.
This is another example of arrogance and disrespect by Erin Smith.
Follow the timeline carefully.
On Sunday, December 13, Erin Smith and Gene Furey contacted the Turnberry Property Owners Association and asked if they could address their meeting on December 16 about a potential development at Turnberry Country Club.
Keep in mind that Erin asked to address this group in her official capacity and that the meeting was private — for members of the TPOA only.
On Tuesday, December 15, Cal Skinner contacted the Village to confirm the facts and to ask about the details of the proposed development and meeting.
Within an hour of Cal Skinner’s contact, the Village quickly issued a press release with details of the proposed development.
But even that press release failed to mention that a meeting with the TPOA had already been arranged.
So, Erin Smith did NOT let ALL of the trustees know about this development or the meeting — only a select few.
And until alerted that the cat was out of the bag, it was kept secret from the public as well.
This is clearly the public’s business, which means ALL of the public should have been informed of this development at the same time — including ALL of the trustees.
The manner in which this was handled reeks of favoritism and stealth.
It is conduct unbecoming of a public official.
The Lakewood village board appears to have violated the open meetings act at the 11/24/15 board meeting.
Agenda item #5 was never recognized, opened for discussion, voted on, or deferred to a later date.
Agenda item #6 was never opened for public discussion prior the vote of the trustees to accept a proposal for fire and ems protection that will cost residents more for actually less service.
This too reeks.
The creation of 240 expensive condos will mean that another 24 low income housing units will need to be built in tif, in order for Lakewood to comply with Illinois Affordable Housing Act.
That means predictably 15 more Lakewood children to be educated for 35 years at Woodstock taxpayers’ sole expense…..while Lakewood collects all the tax revenues from the tif in order to distribute this money to developers.
15 students at $9000 annual levy per student= $135,000 more cost burden on top of the $540,000 cost burden inflicted by the tif’s FIRST 100 low income housing units.
So Lakewood’s tif revenues will be generated by a direct tax shift transfer from Woodstock: a community with a poverty rate of 14%….Lakewood with poverty rate of 1.7%…
Lakewood will be earning at least $675,000 per year directly from Woodstock District 200 taxpayers.
That will be the Turnberry Resort marketing feature I will attempt to highlight on all social media outlets.
Great location for some ‘affordable’ housing? Wait until HUD completes their demographic study for the area.
This news is a shock to our community and there is never a good time to hear of drastic changes.
With that being said and having the night to mull over the questions that were asked at the response from the village I think Erin did the right thing.
If she had come to us earlier we would have been even more frustrated with her lack of information.
Not everyone is going to be happy about a new development if it eventually fails we will have an eyesore… and when the club and coarse shut down it too will be an eyesore, at least with the development there is hope.
There’s that silly word again: “hope”.
After seven years of “hope” in D.C. and the recent marketing of “hope” with the twp. consolidation thing, I have had it with “hope”.
Out of the whole “hope and change” thing though we have had lots of “change”.
Fewer people live in Illinois.
Federal debt will encumber your great grandchildren.
Foreign born population is now the highest percentage it has been
in over one hundred years.
Friction between police and the public is at an all time high.
Trust in government is at an all time low.
Race relations have deteriorated.
Fear of ‘everything’ is increasing.
A student was sent home this week because he wore a Star Wars shirt which had a weapon on it!
Republicans in D.C. have become Democrats and Democrats have become communists.
Common sense appears to be on a permanent vacation!
I see the problems of our community and our country as overwhelming and almost insurmountable; so without hope what else is there.
You may call my word silly but it is a word I would not live without.