My neighbor and I had a chuckle after reading Cathy Adduci’s letter [Courts are holding housing progress hostage, Viewpoints, June 10] casting the courts as the reason for the failure of the development of the Lake and Lathrop site. This is my neighbor who, when I moved into River Forest 12 years ago, kitty-corner to Lake and Lathrop, said, “It will never be built.” Turns out he was right. How did he know? He knew the history and reputation of the developers. The first, Keystone Ventures, was owned by Tim Hague, a River Forest resident.(1) The second was Sedgwick Development, whose owner is Marty Paris, also a River Forest resident.(2) Both developers, in turn, were granted multiple extensions by Cathy’s board until, finally, the bank pulled out.
If my neighbor knew to doubt the reliability of Tim Hague and Marty Paris, why didn’t the River Forest Village Board know and act on it? Instead of being good stewards of our village, the board put its (misplaced) trust and our money on developers with an “in” with the powers-that-be (Marty Paris’ father, former village president Frank Paris, brought Cathy onto the board).
We’ve heard this from public comments at board and commission meetings: that developers know they may as well not bid on a project if they don’t have some level of “in” with the powers-that-be. That is a problem for us. It limits our choices and could keep more qualified developers from even entering into the running. So in the end we got stuck with Marty Paris who seems to know how to work the court system so that he avoids responsibility and holds us hostage, unable to open the site up to new developers. Working the court system doesn’t mean the courts are holding us hostage. It means Marty Paris is, legally, using the courts for his benefit. Thanks, Cathy, for leading your board into this mess.
Sources:
1) Lake-Lathrop development gets the green light, Wednesday Journal, 3-29-2016
2) Lake and Lathrop project gets new contract, Wednesday Journal, 9-19-2017.
Phyllis Rubin
River Forest