FYI. Municipal, County and Park District courses don't pay taxes. In fact, all but self-sustaining courses are already subsidized by our property taxes.

what value is a club house, locker room and grille if there is no membership to use it? i feel the open space that the clubs provide along with the maintenance of the grounds adds value to the community, if a club was acting like a hotel then the tax status would have to be reviewed. I think the concept of club revenue should come into play. If the club is getting a majority of the money from membership and golf then the tax status shoudl be left alone. Clubs are responsible for state sales tax. If our governement officials administered public funds in a more responsible matter these issues would be moot.

Marco - the only value is to the membership. If you want to be classified as open lands and we need to bear your tax burden, then the entire community should be entitled to use it. Of course muni's don't pay any tax - it is open to the public and community supported. They also don't have formal dining, wooden private lockers, nor charge 100k to get in and allow only those that fit their criteria for admission. You expect us to foot the bill for your extravagence? Your basis for comment is ridiculous. Maybe you would like to get a fat tax deduction and donate the property to the city where we can let it go back to its natural state and use it as nature intended.

Jay is the typical cry baby, can't afford to belong to a country club, hate the well to do, misinformed dope. The tax status of private clubs costs taxpayers far less than the massive losses most munis face annually.

If people are getting excited about this situation, they are missing the point that Onwentsia is OPEN SPACE--like LF Open Lands. If it was broken up and Stonebridge-like maisonettes were built up and down the fairways we would need a whole new school for the new families. This is as well a landscape, architectural, and historic site of national significance, in the Green Bay Road local and NR districts. The original landscaping for the Cobb farm, 1890-93 was by the Olmsted firm (Brookline, MA), the golf course itself was laid out by men who had been taught by Old Tom Morris, St. Andrews, the father of modern golf (the bouncing rubber-band ball): Charles Mcdonald who brought golf to Chicago and to the North Shore (1892); Fred Hayner, LF College class of 1895, later a Chicago sports editor, saw him "drive" the first golf ball in the midwest, off the bluff in Forest Park. Mcdonald and James Foulis, a "graduate" of Old Tom Morris's golf course design practice in Engliand, laid out the Onwentsia course. The club house of 1928 is by Harrie T. Lindeberg, NYC, grad. of Stanford White's firm.

The club's activities brought back to Chicago every early summer the wealthy beneficiaries of Chicago businesses, kept them tied to the source of their money, with 15,000 attending horse show events in the early 1900s--a reform project.

And I benefit, occasionally as a moocher there, but mostly because I get to drive by on Green Bay Road and Ahwahnee Road, so we all are enriched the wonderful open space. I benefit from LFHS but I can't enroll as a student--my property values depend on good schools. I pay higher taxes, perhaps. But I benefit from the general ambiance of Lake Forest--the common legacy of all of us from the enlightened leaders of the past. If this appeal does not work perhaps a Ragdale (1230-1260 N. GBR, hosting Radle Foundation) type deal could give the land to the city with a 99-yr. lease back to the club. The members are indeed generally BIG taxpayers who we should encourage to live here--to help keep smaller parcels' taxes down.

I have a nice big yard. I keep it looking clean and well kept, so I can make the claim that it adds value to the community as well. Like the club, my yard is for the private use of me and my guests. Although I do not charge my guests for the use of my yard, I am willing to reconsider that policy if I can avoid paying property taxes.

Where do I apply to have my land qualify as untaxed open land?

With all due respect, Onwentsia is an exclusive private club. It is all but hidden from
public view and access. Were it's property to be sold and developed it would be for
huge sums and be developed as luxury real estate which would not harm the property values that much. Rest assured that hell will freeze over first.
Those that insist on their exclusive Onwentsia membership can well afford it.
The combined wealth of the Onwentsia Club membership, were it calculated and revealed, would make most taxpayers faint. That folks should be put upon to pay taxes on a club that most would not have access to is beyond audacious.
It is simply reprehensible.

If you want to burden the "average man" with your taxes then he/she should be given access to your facilities. Guess I can't blame the Private clubs of LF/LB for trying. How else would the Presidents afford to keep and maintain their private jets and second homes in FL that allow them to avoid paying their IL income taxes too??

There are some key facts missing here. First, what is the current tax revenue at risk here for the Lake Forest and Lake Bluff communites? Second, what is the zoning status of the clubs who are petitioning for favored status? If they are zoned for golf course or open space only, that could affect the future commercial or residential use of their land, and arguably, they might be entitled to a lower bill. Even if they are zoned only for a golf course, if Arnold Palmer or Donald Trump have the possibility of coming in and running the course on a for-profit basis then the land still has some commercial value, albeit speculative. If, however, the land is zoned for possible residential or commercial development, members are sitting on the right to develop those properties. Their land holdings have commercial value and should be taxed.Unlike Janet, I don't think that is a "hell freezes over" probability. Golf is struggling nationwide with dwindling demand. Combine that with falling birth rates and lower incomes, and there are a variety of circumstances that could lead to sales. Some tax seems only fair because they use infrastructure and police and fire. Finally, who are the legislators who should be contacted? Removing land from the tax rolls at this time does not seem to be wise public policy and its disturbing that courts could be making that decision rather than legislatures.

Lake Forest population historically has not followed larger democraphic trends, but instead economic ups and downs and incentives (FHA house loans, after WWII, the drop in income tax rates in the early 1960s and prosperity of the late 1960s, and the sea change in imcome taxes of the 1980s. Golf will climb back in the saddle once the economy rights itself.

If we are to provide taxpayer support for these private clubs than we as a taxpayer base should have full access to these restrictive, private clubs.

No way to should we subsidize private clubs.

Con artists rely on complicated scenerios to obscure their hidden agenda.
This situation however is plain and simple. It is a bold faced attempted rip-off.
There has been so much of this kind of thing going on unprosecuted these days that
the club assumed that no one would notice. we can be sure that Onwentsia and it's lawyers (and who ever else is involved at city, county and state levels) assumed it was a slam dunk.

This is a very interesting issue. There seem to be a number of important factors to
look at. It is important that the details are brought to public attention and examined so that more articles may be written and more public discussion opened up. It would be unwise to make light of the effects this kind of thing can have on a community especially in this precarious economy.
A big thank you to Claudia Lanart and THE PATCH for bringing this matter to light.
I can only wonder why there is no mention of this story on Gazebonews (!?) hummmm!

The club is not that great and not as open to many who can afford much better. Yes there is a glass wall. Why shouldn't my club dues cover taxes? Its better than some of the stuffy nonsense the budget covers today. Yes my kids like it but frankly I prefer hitting at Conway.

I have lived many decades in the shadow of Onwentsia. There was a time when we used to walk and sled there in winter. I remember when the fence was erected to keep kids, and dog walkers and so forth out and off PRIVATE land. Now they expect me to subsidize that private land? I agree that no one should "make light" of this issue. It is extremely serious that anyone is even considering this outrageous suggestion by those who can most afford to pay their taxes. Putting that burden on the 'peasants' who live on the outside of the fence is really an outrageous thought, let alone an actual attempt to make it pass.

If the membership of the Onwentsia Club can afford the initiation fees/dues, then I am certain that they can afford to pay their own property taxes as well.

Owentsia is a terrible club. Maybe 100 years ago it was a nice place but now it is just a dump. The course is by far the worst private course in the North Shore. It's not an enjoyable place to be, iv been there many times.

I used to caddy at Owentsia back in the 1970s. Caddies got to play on the course on Mondays until noon. I thought it was a pretty good golf course. I can't say much about the club house as I very rarely entered the doors.

There is no way that LF tax payers should foot the bill for a private club. My taxes are too high and going up, even though my property value is going down.

Because of the larger taxpayers in LF, many being members of private clubs, the taxes on smaller properties are for example 30% to 50% lower on equivalent land and improvements than in Libertyville. "Too high" compared to what? You can put your value into zillow.com for another community or two and see this too. "Going up?" I think this has been a steady trend, while values have fluctuated over the last forty years that I've seen. Already values have bottomed out apparently and will improve. For those who have had private or micro economic challenges, of course, any taxes are too high, etc.

The property tax assessment system tends to incentivize the breaking up of large parcels by seeing them as an aggregate of the value of the area if divided into little lots. Lake Forest's distinctiveness lies in its open character, with buildings distributed further apart than elsewhere nearby and with open parcels like this This owner has been in place since 1895 and the use has been the same. Then it was countryside with surrounding farmland taxed at low rates. Increasingly there is pressure to tax this higher and higher even though the use has not changed, and the density even is down with no horse stables, riding stadium, etc. since 1970, and some summer housing removed.