In the old days, Mark Lichtenfeld played in the woods along the bumpy two-lane road down the street from his parents’ home in Highland Park. “I remember we used to build forts in there,” says Lichtenfeld, now a 28-year-old lawyer. “I was not an environmentalist then–I was a kid. And I just loved the open space.”
As a result of lobbying by Lichtenfeld’s group–the Highland Park Conservation Society–some of Lake County’s most fervent prodevelopment politicians have momentarily taken the preservationist line. But Hoffman has not given up. He’s hired the Loop-based law firm of Rudnick & Wolfe, who have assigned Hal Francke–one of their brightest young stars–to the case. Hoffman has also hired a battery of experts, who maintain that Hybernia will neither increase traffic nor destroy prairie. The forest-preserve board is scheduled to vote at its August 18 meeting on whether to buy the land.
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“As a resident of Highland Park, I think it’s in the best interests of the county to let Hoffman build his development,” says Francke. “The alternative is for the county to spend tax dollars buying and preserving the land. But Hoffman is willing to preserve the endangered wildlife species and wetlands at his expense. The bottom line is that the preservationists don’t want any more development. They’ve got a drawbridge mentality: ‘We’re here, now no one else can get in.’ Well, if the original settlers of Highland Park had that attitude, a lot of the developments these preservationists now live in would never have been built.”
“Being realistic, we have to admit we have reached our saturation point. We must realize that we do not have an infinite amount of land. We’re overbuilding. And yet these developers view land as an endless frontier waiting to be developed.”
“We were surprised by what Francke said,” says Lichtenfeld. “That was the first we had heard of Hoffman’s plans.”
Hoffman’s proposal drew nearly 200 opponents to the city-council meeting; and the Highland Park aldermen–not normally known as preservationists–sided with the masses. They decided that they would not object if the forest preserve bought the prairie.
“Strenger was stalling,” says one longtime observer of the forest preserve board. “His proposal would allow the board to bring in some appraiser who would quote a superhigh appraisal, and then all the fence sitters would say ‘Well, I really wanted to buy the land, but I just can’t vote to spend so much money.’”
