Our Place
Hillmoor. What’s coming with this new group of Chicago realtors passing themselves off as the new owners, in place of the guy headed for a long time to a federal penitentiary. What’s up with them? They sent people to talk to Lake Geneva’s people on Monday night at the planning meeting. They like to say things like “we’re really into senior living,” although they didn’t look old enough to be seniors. They let people into AARP now at forty-five years of age so maybe that analysis is wrong. Senior living? Like Lake Geneva needs more garrulous, testy and “just say no to everything” citizens added to its voting ranks. Out on Highway 120 they are going to add a whole bunch of those aging up-from Chicago “don’t build any schools because we’re done learning” part-time, but voting citizens. What happened to the original idea of building a retail center? With the new ideas and representation of this Hillmoor wrecking crew comes more requests for changes the comprehensive plan to favor whatever it is they want to do.
Here they come again. The annexation of the Geneva Inn seems to go away and then come quietly back, like a middle of the night tidal surge. The communities around the lake are all up-grading their comprehensive plans. Their plans about how development is ruled, allowed or denied. Previously the plans the towns had drawn up were written so that the pristine nature of the area around the lake, which attracts tourists and allows residents to enjoy the ambiance, was not destroyed by out of control development or density issues that might cause the same kind of destruction. While the Lake Geneva Planning Commission is undertaking a rework of its plan for the city’s development, along comes the Geneva Inn seeking to have its prospective annexation included as “mixed use” property, instead of residential. The Geneva Inn wants to be annexed into the City of Lake Geneva because the Town of Linn will not let them tear down nearby homes to build a facility for banquets and weddings, and it is hoping Lake Geneva will be more accommodating.
‘Scoop’ of the Week
What else would be called Scoops other than an ice-cream shop? Maybe a newspaper? Scoops has been a fixture of Lake Geneva for the past 30 years. Tim Dorey is Scoops owner and is proud of the awards his place has received. They are almost as numerous as the selection of inventive flavors of ice cream always has on hand. His place is just steps from the beach across the street from the Riviera pier complex and Speedos.
Wow, where to begin……
First, your photo comparison was more than slightly misleading. The current Hillmoor would have been better represented by a condemned lot instead of the “pristine” space shown in the picture. Let’s be honest, it hasn’t been groomed and cared for in years and has fallen into nothing short of an eyesore. My mother recently visited me and remarked how, in her words, “horrible” the old golf course looks. That leads me to ask which is worse, “senior living” or blighted property?
Second, as a person who’s middle aged buy not yet a senior, I resent the statement about seniors. One man’s garrulous, testy and “just say no to everything” is another’s wise, well adjusted, and willing to scrutinize potentially unnecessary spending. Having read and commented on many of your articles, I thought for sure you’d be a little more sympathetic to people who aren’t willing to take the blank check approach to spending. I for one see the maturity of older people as a necessary offset to the “younger” who think those schools should be the Taj Mahal and worry how to pay for it later.
Third, I hate to break it to people but a person willing to invest in that property isn’t going to just let it “go to seed” so to speak. They’re going to want to do something with it as to have some return on investment. I’d simply suggest to the crowd that clamor for “open space” or the return of a “golf course” to pool their money and buy the property yourself.
Thanks for your erudite input.