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About Isabella Woods

Isabella Woods is a remnant oak forest on high quality wetlands in Evanston. Public land. Swampy in wet seasons, it has many mature trees that support birdlife. We're fighting to keep it a public resource.

A driveway proposed in 2017-18 would take out most of Isabella Woods, and cut what was then estimated to be 48 trees, including 21 oaks of an average estimated age of 169 years.  Isabella Woods is public property owned by the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District (MWRD) that leases it to the City of Evanston. Evanston subleases Isabella Woods to Canal Shores Golf Course, a publicly accessible golf course.

Isabella Woods lies east of CTA tracks and north of Isabella Ave., abutting the Wilmette property owned by Dick Keefe Development Co. that the proposed driveway would service. The company is a partnership between Keefe family member/s and former Illinois Senate President John Cullerton ("Keefe-Cullerton").

Why Isabella Woods deserves protection

• Isabella Woods is public property.
• The woods are working for nature and people: providing stormwater capture, biodiversity, clean air, a leafy refuge and more.
• Keefe-Cullerton can sell on their property with access from the approved Maple Avenue easement. The CTA also offered an easement that Keefe-Cullerton never finalized.
• Keefe-Cullerton just want to sell their properties to a developer for 4-5 houses instead of two because it will provide them more profit.
• Keefe-Cullerton bought their properties aware that Wilmette would approve two houses on their property based on the CTA driveway access, not 4-5 houses.
• MWRD has approved a wide easement from Maple Avenue to the north.

2022 proposal: road to east of Isabella Woods

In 2022 Keefe-Cullerton asked MWRD for an easement for a road to the east of Isabella Woods from Isabella Ave., Evanston to the Wilmette Keefe property. MWRD said they had already decided the issue ... in 2017 (giving Keefe the Maple Ave. easement).

Keefe-Cullerton said the Wilmette property would be donated to nonprofit Housing Opportunity Development Corporation (HODC). Then Keefe-Cullerton could secure affordable housing tax credits for resale on a secondary market; this will provide income to Keefe-Cullerton based on the number of houses that can be developed. The property would return to Keefe-Cullerton if HODC is unable to build.

Issues with the proposal:

• Ensure the Proposal advanced will not impact Isabella Woods, or substantially impair the publicly-accessible Canal Shores Golf Course.
• MWRD should preserve green space as part of its 2008 policy commitment to conserving green space north of Devon.
• ‍No public land for private benefit. This request comes to MWRD to enhance the value of the Keefe-Cullerton property in order to secure higher value for the Keefe group through the affordable housing tax creditresale market. This proposal arose because the resale market of affordable housing tax credits exists; not to create affordable housing.
• It has not been demonstrated that the swampy Keefe-Cullerton property is buildable.
• No site preparation until all permits and financing in place. It shouldn’t happen that trees are cut and then financing fails, or permits are denied.
• ‍Bad MWRD precedent:‍

• Can property owners not only shop for MWRD public land, but even be granted public land and then shop for a privately preferred option?

• No easement by necessity has been established. Keefe-Cullerton have just asserted they are entitled to their preferred access as taxpayers. Dick Keefe bought the property subject to its landlocked position. He contracted to purchase access to the property, and never asserted any right to anything.‍
• Political power and privilege. This is only before MWRD due to the political powerand privilege being brought to bear on MWRD.

At a minimum, MWRD needs a properly detailed easement request.

Its history of being threatened

Keefe-Cullerton has worked for 30 years to secure preferred driveway access to increase the development value of its property, including through Isabella Woods.  Here is a brief recap:

• December 12, 1988, Keefe-Cullerton purchased from a bankrupt railroad the first parcel (1st parcel) a triangular property adjacent to a 2 parcel (2 parcel). The Uhlich Children’s Home owned the 2nd parcel for 40+ years; it received the land by bequest.  
• Keefe-Cullerton and Uhlich asked the Wilmette plan commission to approve subdividing the parcels into four lots for development.  To access the two parcels, Keefe-Cullerton planned to use a strip 20’ wide that the CTA had offered.   
• March 14, 1989 Wilmette denied their request. Wilmette informed Keefe-Cullerton that the CTA strip was not wide enough for a driveway, requiring a width of atleast 27’ to service 1-2 homes.
• October4, 1989, the CTA authorized adding 7’ in width to the driveway strip, subject to the CTA retaining 24-hour access to the driveway for operations and maintenance. This was not yet a purchase, but indicated that the CTA would sell Keefe-Cullerton a driveway that would total 27’ x 627’.
• Keefe-Cullerton asked Wilmette again for a 4 lot subdivision based on having a 27’ wide driveway. 
• Wilmette said no, and prevailed in 1999 litigation brought by Keefe-Cullerton and Uhlichover that rejection. Wilmette said 4 lots would require a 60’ public right-of-way. In the litigation, Wilmette indicated that it would likely approve variances for a 1-lot development. 
• On June 25, 2002, Wilmette voted to approve a 2-lot subdivision consisting of the 1st parcel, the 2nd parcel still owned by Uhlich and the 27’ wide CTA driveway parcels, subject to variances and conditions onutilities.
• ‍With the 2-lot approval in hand, on October 8, 2002, Keefe-Cullerton purchased the 2nd parcel from Uhlich.  
• Wilmette extended the variances for more than four years through 2007 as Keefe-Cullerton worked to get utility access. 
• Keefe-Cullerton never closed the CTA purchases.  The LWV-W recap notes: Keefe said there were ‘insurmountable obstacles” with the CTA driveway, including the CTA’s right to take over the roadway at any time, although that right had been in the proposed CTAeasements since at least when Wilmette first approved the 2-lot subdivision andzoning variances in 2002.
• ‍Starting in 2014, Keefe-Cullerton then lobbied MWRD for a road through Isabella Woods that would have essentially destroyed the small woods.  The City of Evanston, Wilmette Park District and many residents opposed that easement request: MWRD received about 550 letters, emails, calls and more than 30 speakers at its meetings supporting the woods, and only Joe Keefe in public opposition. The MWRD Board unanimously denied that request on May 18, 2017.
• The MWRD Board on November 15, 2018, voted 5-4 in favor of an easement to Maple Avenue. Specifically MWRD approved “authority to grant” to Cook County a 75-year, approximately 60’ x 426’ easement from Maple Avenue to the Keefe-Cullerton parcels. This authority has never been formally committed to a written easement. This vote still stands, granting Keefe-Cullerton the easement from Maple Ave.