Please contact your Alton Alderman/woman (find them here: http://www.alton-il.com/council.htm) or call the Mayor at (618)463-3500 and tell them not to accept any bids for sale until a public hearing is held and not until the commission an ad hoc committee to look at the cost-benefits of the alternatives that the golf course could be converted into.

A couple of years ago, the City of Alton's Aldermen had the land appraised, quoted the land's worth, and sought developers to offer bids for developing rights. Thankfully, with the help of local union organizers and pro-active creative citizens, we were able to get the Wal-Mart development proposal off the table! Now, the City of Alton will sell the Robert P. Wadlow Golf Course to the St. Louis based TRiSTAR Properties, who develops large-scale business parks with an emphasis on office and industrial buildings. This particular development will include townhomes, too. 

We still believe that the City of Alton should not develop a public park for office spaces when there are too many empty spaces at many other buildings in town, namely the downtown area and the brownsfield Clark's Properties. There just isn't the demand to fill the space. We advocate that the public's land is best left as publicly owned openspace, not more concrete.

Pre-emptive action is needed to preserve the Robert P. Wadlow Golf Course, located on Homer Adams Parkway in Alton, IL. Mayor Sandidge told the Sierra Club that he feels that the community is apathetic to the possible commercial and residential development of one of the last green spaces left on the Beltline. We implore you to contact the Mayor to express your dismay with the City’s sentiments and with your ideas for the creative outdoor use the golf course can provide.

This golf course provides open space protection, which is good for our community’s stability, health, beauty, and quality of life. We hope that the City will actively seek community input into the future of the golf course and it’s green-space acreage.

The golf course’s 55 acres could possibly be converted into the combination of commercial and residential developments. We understand that the City states they are losing money by owning and operating the course. We hope the next move will be for the City to publicly go forward with plans to rectify this situation through management policy actions. The Piasa Palisades Group is troubled that by going forward with the development mindframe, the City of Alton may be somewhat shortsighted about the community’s future by thinking only of financial incentives.

While other communities are tearing down pristine wilderness to put in golf courses, we already have one. Although it may not currently be profiting, it would be nice to keep a relatively flat golf course in use for recreational pleasure. Each time you drive by the golf course, take time to see fellow citizens enjoying the outdoors in the middle of their city. The colors the trees and shrubs will bring to us in the spring and fall will make everyone’s day a little nicer.

In times when other communities are searching for green space areas to set aside for future community/recreation use, it is discouraging that the City of Alton is considering destroying such an area for more commercial and/or residential buildings. The recent move to obliterate nearby forested land to entice developers makes us wonder how this larger tract of green space could be subverted.

It would be a shame if the existing course will be demolished for commercial development, leaving the City or other interests to tear down forests to build a new course when the need arises in the future. If we develop everything, we tend destroy what people come to live here for in the first place. Our elected officials have a duty to provide a high quality of life to the community, including making an investment in open space that will produce important economic benefits.

This is a wonderful community to live in: it boasts unique landscapes, friendly people, and small, locally owned businesses. One of the City’s unspoken long-term goals is to entice families and individuals to relocate to Alton and to boast a high retention rate. Building strip mall after strip mall after large discount stores only speaks to one factor of the community’s economy. In fact, I wager that building such development will not entice new families, but will give them one more reason to seek out other communities that care more about community activities, green space, and the well being of itself.

Let us not embrace poorly planned, development: a drive on Missouri’s Lindbergh Boulevard helps one to envision what maybe in store for us if we destroy the golf course. Such unrestrained suburbs around the country have witnessed a disconnection between the citizens and their community. Alton has a community feel that is unique: let’s build on it, not tear it down.

The City of Alton can be much more creative. If the golf course is losing money, we need to think of outdoor, recreational projects that would help the City balance monetary and green space interests, such as a Japanese garden/pond with cultural evening activities. Maybe the Alton YWCA and/or the Hayner Public Library could relocate there - they are both looking for new space to grow. The City Planning Commission along with the variety of educational, cultural, small business, and spiritual resources in town ought to bring to light some inspirational ideas. 

There are plenty of Visionaries in the Alton area. I implore you to call or drop Mayor Sandidge, the City’s aldermen, and planner a letter voicing your ideas and your dismay at the City’s sentiments on the possibility of selling the golf course. Thank you in advance for making a difference in the planning of our future. The more voices the City hears, the more they will start working toward community interests, not solely monetary ones.

The Mayor's address is: City Hall; 101 East Third Street; Alton, IL 62002. (618) 463-3500

updated January 19, 2006