Buyers of campsite promise Boy Scouts they'll tread lightly
Date Added: 25-02-2005
A 4,700-acre campground in Michigan owned since 1911 by the Chicago Boy Scouts council would remain largely undeveloped by an investor group that has agreed to buy the land for $19.4 million, the head of the group said Wednesday.
It's possible the Boy Scouts could lease part of the Owasippe Scout Reservation from the developer, but one Scout official said Wednesday that the council also could use the proceeds from the sale to buy a campground that's a bit smaller and closer to Chicago.
"With the sale of Owasippe, we'll have one of the largest endowments of any council in the country," said Dennis Chookaszian, who was chairman of a Scout committee that researched options for selling the property. The money from the sale "could be used to obtain a fabulous camping facility, either in cooperation with another council or by outright purchase."
Either way, it appears Owasippe won't turn into a concrete wasteland any time soon.
"It's a beautiful piece of property that's pretty much unchanged for the past 100 years, and we want to see as much as possible of the land remain that way," said Benjamin A. Smith III, part of the Holland, Mich., group approved to buy the property.
"I know what happens when property gets sold. It would be a shame to see [Owasippe] paved into a parking lot, and I'm not going to do that."
The property is about 200 miles from downtown Chicago near Muskegon, Mich. The Chicago Area Council of the Boy Scouts of America, which covers the city and 17 south and west suburbs, has owned the property and operated summer camps there for more than 80 years. But financial pressures and declining attendance prompted leaders two years ago to consider selling all or part of the property.
Chookaszian, a retired insurance executive, said that with the sale of Owasippe and the previous sale of another campground in Kendall County, the Chicago Area Council will have assets of about $40 million.
"We will continue to have summer camping but it will be dramatically better," he said. "We need something smaller, closer [to Chicago] and easier to maintain."
Though bitterly opposed by some in the organization, the sale was approved Tuesday by the Chicago Area council's board of directors in a 14-12 vote. The sale is contingent on approval of a rezoning plan in Blue Lake Township, where the camp is, to rezone from a campground to a combination campground and residential zone. The township board had imposed the campground classification to preserve the land from development.
Opponents of the sale within the Boy Scouts say it was planned and executed by a few top leaders without enough views from rank-and-file members.
The Chicago council will continue to operate its summer camps at Owasippe this summer and next summer, Smith said.
In the 1960s, Owasippe had 13,000 campers per summer but now has about 2,600, half of whom are from Chicago and half from other areas, officials have said.
Chookaszian said council leaders think it's a poor use of resources to keep 4,700 acres of campground for summer-only use by 1,200 Chicago-area campers when the land could generate money to provide a closer and better-maintained camp that would attract more use.
For More Information . . . http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/southsouthwest/chi-0502240410feb24,1,7091708.story?coll=chi-newslocalssouthwest-hed&ctrack=1&cset=true
It's possible the Boy Scouts could lease part of the Owasippe Scout Reservation from the developer, but one Scout official said Wednesday that the council also could use the proceeds from the sale to buy a campground that's a bit smaller and closer to Chicago.
"With the sale of Owasippe, we'll have one of the largest endowments of any council in the country," said Dennis Chookaszian, who was chairman of a Scout committee that researched options for selling the property. The money from the sale "could be used to obtain a fabulous camping facility, either in cooperation with another council or by outright purchase."
Either way, it appears Owasippe won't turn into a concrete wasteland any time soon.
"It's a beautiful piece of property that's pretty much unchanged for the past 100 years, and we want to see as much as possible of the land remain that way," said Benjamin A. Smith III, part of the Holland, Mich., group approved to buy the property.
"I know what happens when property gets sold. It would be a shame to see [Owasippe] paved into a parking lot, and I'm not going to do that."
The property is about 200 miles from downtown Chicago near Muskegon, Mich. The Chicago Area Council of the Boy Scouts of America, which covers the city and 17 south and west suburbs, has owned the property and operated summer camps there for more than 80 years. But financial pressures and declining attendance prompted leaders two years ago to consider selling all or part of the property.
Chookaszian, a retired insurance executive, said that with the sale of Owasippe and the previous sale of another campground in Kendall County, the Chicago Area Council will have assets of about $40 million.
"We will continue to have summer camping but it will be dramatically better," he said. "We need something smaller, closer [to Chicago] and easier to maintain."
Though bitterly opposed by some in the organization, the sale was approved Tuesday by the Chicago Area council's board of directors in a 14-12 vote. The sale is contingent on approval of a rezoning plan in Blue Lake Township, where the camp is, to rezone from a campground to a combination campground and residential zone. The township board had imposed the campground classification to preserve the land from development.
Opponents of the sale within the Boy Scouts say it was planned and executed by a few top leaders without enough views from rank-and-file members.
The Chicago council will continue to operate its summer camps at Owasippe this summer and next summer, Smith said.
In the 1960s, Owasippe had 13,000 campers per summer but now has about 2,600, half of whom are from Chicago and half from other areas, officials have said.
Chookaszian said council leaders think it's a poor use of resources to keep 4,700 acres of campground for summer-only use by 1,200 Chicago-area campers when the land could generate money to provide a closer and better-maintained camp that would attract more use.
For More Information . . . http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/southsouthwest/chi-0502240410feb24,1,7091708.story?coll=chi-newslocalssouthwest-hed&ctrack=1&cset=true