NIMBY
This is in regard to finding a new place closer to the Chicago area than the Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery at Elwood, IL, which is south of Joliet. That cemetery includes places for cremains, and has room for 400,000 burials. The Fort Sheridan Post Cemetery is limited to those who made a career in the military, and those spaces are dwindling. Part of Fort Sheridan’s acreage is also part of the Lake County Forest Preserve district, with regular guided tours for people who want to come and see the wildlife (mostly hawks) and the habitat. (Sorry, I don’t have a photo of the Lincoln Cemetery entrance.)
What the VA wants to do, according to the article, is build a columbarium on a 15-acre site at Freeman and Mundhank roads, five miles east of the Arboretum (shopping center) of South Barringon, just off Interstate 90. It would offer room for 5,000 containers for cremains, along with a memorial marker, gravesite locator and parking.
However, the potential neighbors of this proposal were adamantly against the idea, even though it will be near Paul Douglas Forest Preserve, named for the Senator from Illinois who was one of the oldest Marine seeing combat in World War II in the Pacific Theater. Mr. Douglas also helped to preserve the Indiana Dunes National Lake Shore.
There are apparently all kinds of excuses: kids scared by the sound of blanks being fired from rifles, the sound of “Taps” depressing everyone, etc. but the NIMBY attitude is the real reason.
Charles Selle’s article is here: https://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/lake-county-news-sun/opinion/ct-lns-selle-south-barrington-columbarium-st-1115-story.html
As Mr. Selle, the author of the article, tells us, it is less about finding a final resting place for veterans. It’s about property values and that old bugbear NIMBY (not in my back yard!)
From Zillow: The median home value in South Barrington is $759,700. South Barrington home values have gone up 2.0% over the past year and Zillow predicts they will fall -0.9% within the next year. The median list price per square foot in South Barrington is $210, which is higher than the Chicago-Naperville-Elgin Metro average of $166. The median price of homes currently listed in South Barrington is $865,000.
I looked up current sales prices on homes in South Barrington. They’ve gone up quite a bit since 1972, when I had a horse at a stable over in that area, something on the order of 1000% higher than back then. https://www.zillow.com/south-barrington-il/
While I can understand the desire to have a place closer to Chicago than the rather long distance down to Elwood, there are other places that might welcome the plan and provide acreage suitable for a columbarian.
One of those is land near the Illinois-Wisconsin state line, already purchased by the Lake County Forest Preserve District, and currently used as crop production until further notice. If the VA is paying for the development of this facility, then why not use land already in the FPD, with plenty of parking and access already in place?
The VA is taking public comment on the cemetery through Nov. 26, with a final environmental assessment due next month. However, as Mr. Selle indicates in his article, the VA can build the columbarium without village approval.
Here’s the link to the pdf of the VA’s proposal: https://www.cem.va.gov/CEM/docs/EA/ALNC_Columbarium_Draft_EA.pdf
I could not find any VA contact info specific to this, but you could call their general number and ask about how to provide your input on it, if you like.
Category: "Your Tax Dollars At Work", Support the troops
Camp Butler still has plenty of land…
How far is that from Chicago?
150 miles or so. If they really wanted to make a VA Cemetary, they’ve done nothing, repeat nothing with the old US Steel site on Torrence. Some moron want’s to put “Housing” there, wait 20 years and see the cancer clusters. But I’m pretty sure a VA Cemetary wouldn’t make the Vets more dead. It’s in the city, on two river fronts, and you could make it a beautiful place to look out from.
The site on Torrence was Wisconsin Steel. U.S. Steel South Works was on the lakefront at the mouth of the Calumet River, a couple of miles downstream from Wisconsin Steel. Both sites are abandoned. I’d prefer the South Works be used for that, being on the lake, but the powers that be are going to keep pushing mixed use development of South Works because it’s the last piece of undeveloped lakefront land within the Chicago city limits health risks be damned.
Funny you mentioned the Indiana dunes, lived there when I was a kid in Hobart Indiana, started little league, went to a church, dug tunnels in the sand lol…worst memory….my collie got hit by a car, broke his leg, next worst was having to leave him when we moved to Kalifornia! memories..alas…good and bad 😉
Some distinct advantages to having a nice VA Cemetery next door to a high end subdivision. The home owners wouldn’t have to concern themselves with a trailer park, Wally World, Section 8 housing, land fill, nuc plant, ect ect. being built there. Zoning, like karma, can be a cast iron bitch that will bite you on the ass.
You ask me, cemeteries make great neighbors. At least until the dead rise from their graves in the inevitable zombie apocalypse.
….inevitable zombie apocalypse.
Any day now….
I can’t fucking wait.
They’re all laying back down in their graves, they’ve done their duty and voted democratic, yet again.
That and the neighbors are ‘QUIET” lol, besides, people “are just dying to get into cemetaries”! moan…
Off subject, but BIG
Vermont’s Brigadier General Heston just passed away from a possible burn pit connected illness.
Its the new Agent Orange.
Rest In Peace, Soldier:
https://www.wcax.com/content/news/Former-Vt-Army-National-Guard-Commander-Michael-Heston-has-died-500598471.html
Salute.
God Speed and Fare Well General. If any thing good can come out of your early untimely passing, may it be the acknowledgement that the burn pits have adversely affected our troops. Thank you for your long service.
Salute.
Why not bulldoze inner city crime infested neighborhoods and turn them into beautiful greenspace graveyards?
Well, vandalism is one reason. Dead voters in Chicago political races would be another reason.
They are already graveyards! All they have to do is look on their back porch or yard and see bodies…;)
Screw the NIMBYs and I’ll laugh when karma bites them back!
If you go through the pdf brochure, there are two aerial naps in color of the proposed site, and that includes what is in the vicinity of it, which is next to nothing.
The complaints are baloney. They just don’t want to be bothered with a place that serves the needs of vets.
Personally, I’d take the site of the old nuclear plant, since it’s been shut down for years and is being demolished, and the dead really don’t care about low levels of radiation. It’s also part of what used to be the Fort Sheridan training and artillery ranges, before the BRAC business.
I don’t know about using the Zion Nuclear Plant land…that could lead to the previously mentioned zombie apocalypse. Dead 💀 bodies and nuclear ☢️ radiation…sounds like the beginning of a 50s B-movie to me!☠️👻🧟♂️
Sure. You do realize that those residents you are talking about are also veterans, right? Bet the media won’t change their narrative to let you know that.
FYI several of these residents are veterans. Get your facts straight and stop villianizing a small community that is ONLY asking the VA to consider other parcels in their community in which the village has asked the VA to work with them to find an appropriate place. The media has spun this Into a an a controversial narrative. A narrative that includes veterans being disrespected and meant to feel shame with requesting the VA to be transparent and work with the village and the affected residents.