An estimated 75 people packed the American Legion Hall on Central Street in Evanston Friday night for a presentation from the Evanston Wilmette Golf Association of a $6 million plan to renovate the Canal Shores golf course.
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Board members said they plan to embark upon a two-year fundraising campaign to generate the revenue needed for the rehab project.
The plan, designed by golf architect Dave Zinkand, revolves around a four-course concept which includes a 12-hole course north of Isabella Street, a children’s practice area with five short holes south of Central Street, an 18-hole putting course and multi-directional practice and six-hole short course south of Lincoln Street. Zinkand said the abbreviated courses would appeal to working professionals who are short on time but would still like to fit in a round of golf. He also touted the children’s practice section as an area which could sustain dozens of youth players simultaneously at different stations.
Residents, several of whom said they live adjacent to the course, peppered Zinkand and members of the Evanston Wilmette Golf Course Association board of directors with questions about how the renovation would affect the surrounding environment, how many trees would be removed to make way for the new courses and whether residents should worry about stray balls flying from the course onto their property.
Board members acknowledged that trees would need to come down to make way for the changes but assured the crowd that the focus would be on invasive species of trees and efforts would be made to restore native flora to the area.
Jay Ryan, a member of the board of the directors of the Evanston Wilmette Golf Course Association, said the association received a grant to revitalize the 40-acre area along the waterway of the Northshore Channel. The board hired Wheaton-based Planning Resources, Inc., an interdisciplinary firm of wetland ecologists, landscape architects and land use planners, to evaluate the environment and identify trees and sites worth preserving in an effort to boost the health of the area’s natural features. Ryan said work on the project has yet to begin but should take between six and nine months to complete.
Board member Kevin Kane said the plan would only become a reality if the association is able to raise $6 million in the next two years. He said the association is primarily interested in private contributions and would not seek funding from the public.
“What we want to do is get as many small contributions as we can,” Kane said. “We’re talking to folks interested in big donations, but they want to make sure the community is behind it before they make those big donations.”
Residents also wondered whether the upgrade would translate to higher fees for play.
Superintendent and general manager for the course, Tom Tully, said golfers could expect “a modest increase” in fees.
When asked whether officials from Evanston, Wilmette and the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District were involved in the project, board members said all three entities had received information outlining the concept. Board member Steve Neumann said the association is in talks to extend its lease of the land from MWRD for an additional 30 years after its expiration in 2031. He said representatives from the district, Evanston aldermen and staff at Evanston’s Parks and Recreation Department have so far expressed “very positive” reactions to the project.
“They all have a say, because it is leased land, but they also want us to run a golf course,” he said.
Lee V. Gaines is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.