A Glencoe man trying to gain access to land his family owns in Wilmette has pivoted direction in his efforts, from the Wilmette Park District to Evanston city officials.
Joseph Keefe, who last year asked park board commissioners to back his attempt to get an easement on land leading to his landlocked property, said last week that he now hopes Evanston aldermen will do so, after they – and Evanston neighbors of the property in question – take a look at an environmental remediation plan he’ll bring to the table for the acreage.
“Our plan is to do two things at once,” Keefe said. “Yes, we hope to build a roadway (over the easement), but we also want to restore the environmental and sustainable components of the area, removing invasive species and bringing in native species.”
Keefe said he’ll present the plan from Leland, Ill.-based Pizzo and Associates and Ecology LLC at an Evanston community meeting in late October. He said his family expects to pay a significant amount to pull out invasive species, create a water retention plan and build enhancements like wooden walkways and a butterfly garden on the property.
“Higher than $50,000, lower than $100,000,” he said.
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Evanston 7th Ward Alderman Eleanor Revell, in whose ward the easement would lie, confirmed Sept. 29 that Keefe will present his plan at ward meeting at the Evanston Civic Center, at 6 p.m. on Oct. 25. He has also offered to take people on tours of the land his family proposes to improve on Oct. 23 at 1 p.m., she said.
“There’s going to be a lot of community interest” in the proposal, she said.
Revell and Keefe said the matter will eventually end up in front of the Evanston city council for a decision.
Keefe said officials with the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District, which actually owns the land over which the easement would travel, have “responded positively” to the proposal.
Which governmental entities, in addition to the MWRD, must sign off on the easement before Keefe’s family can get it has proven confusing for some of the players since at least July 2015.
That’s when Keefe told Wilmette park commissioners he needed the easement to sell his family’s four-lot property just north of the Wilmette-Evanston border, and south of Wilmette’s Golf Terrace. Without it, he can’t build an access road to the property, rendering it unmarketable, he said. There is no ingress from Golf Terrace to the north, he said.
The MWRD leases just under 32 acres east and west of the North Shore Channel, between Isabella Street and Sheridan Road, to the Wilmette Park District in an agreement that lasts until 2032, according to MWRD officials. The park district in turns leases some of that land to the Canal Shores Golf Club, whose course lies in both Evanston and Wilmette.
Because the easement is sought by a private entity, the park district would have to sign off on the MWRD’s easement approval, MWRD Executive Director David St. Pierre wrote in a January letter to Wilmette Park District Director Steve Wilson. At the time, both governments believed the park district would have to do so.
And because the easement would run through Evanston and Wilmette, both the city of Evanston and the village of Wilmette would also have to do so, St. Pierre told Wilmette parks commissioners in April.
A park district committee refused to endorse the easement, saying it would eliminate publicly owned land used for recreation for the benefit of a private landowner. Days later, Keefe’s attorney said his research indicated that the easement might not cross land subleased by the park district, cutting the park district out of the equation. At that point, the MWRD asked the park district to hold off on any formal decision to research the claim for 30 days.
Wilson said Sept. 29 that the district has not heard from anyone regarding the easement issue since then.
MWRD spokeswoman Allison Fore said in a Sept. 2 email that the MWRD “has no objections to providing an easement to the Keefe Trust,” but referred other questions about the easement to the trust, “as we are the last in line in this loop.”
When asked if he plans to return to the park district or to the village of Wilmette for any reason, Keefe said, “We’re really looking at this one step at a time. First step was to share the concept with the MWRD, which they received with enthusiasm. The next step is to meet with Alderman Revell and the community. I’m not looking beyond that.”
Twitter: @pioneer_kathy