Congress refused to allow the Army to turn the vacated Ft. Sheridan over to a private developer on Monday, bringing the long-debated land-swap deal to a formal end.
Elected officials from the North Shore communities around the base were not surprised by the death of the project, which would have turned the shuttered former garrison into upscale housing and a golf course and set aside ravines and bluffs for nature preserves.
Key members of Congress had balked at the plan this fall because it required the suspension of federal law that gives various public agencies the chance to lay claim to closed military bases before they can be sold to private interests.
On Monday, staff members for U.S. Rep. John Porter (R-Ill.) learned that a joint House and Senate committee had rejected legislation to allow the fort to be traded for private land near the Pentagon. The Army had wanted to swap land at the fort for eight acres of property owned by the real estate arm of the Equitable Trust Co. Now, the Army must go through a lengthy set of procedures before a land trade could proceed.
However, local officials believe that by the time they are able to offer the land to Equitable for sale, the firm will no longer be interested.
“This outcome is particularly disturbing, given the many years and tremendous efforts that local efforts . . . have put into planning the reuse of Ft. Sheridan,” Porter said in a statement.
Highland Park City Councilman Peter Koukos said Monday night that the delay will put the fort’s historic district and open space in jeopardy.
“It’s a shame,” he said. “It puts us back at square one. . . The whole thing is up for grabs.”