PALOS HILLS, IL — A popular horse stable and pony party venue on Kean Avenue has been put on notice by the Forest Preserves of Cook County to accept an offer to use a forest preserve-owned driveway or lose access, which could potentially put the stable out of business, the owner claims.
Sarah Halladay, 53, the owner of Sarah’s Stables and Ponies at 8220 and 8236 S. Kean Ave., Willow Springs, said she was given ten days notice earlier this month to agree to a proposal to pay a permit fee for the forest preserve-owned driveway that runs down the middle of her one-acre property. What she doesn’t agree to is the county’s purchase option to buy her property at a future date.
On the north side sits her barn and stable, on the south side, a former biker bar with a gravel parking lot, which Halladay purchased that is now used as a party room for children’s pony parties.
“What we have here is something wonderful for the community,” Halladay told Patch. “Police officers come here to de-stress. We have children and young adults with special needs in therapy programs. People come here in tears and leave with a smile after petting the animals. We bring people to the forest preserve.”
The forest preserve-owned driveway, Halladay claims, has been used as a public parking lot for decades. Losing the driveway would shut off parking access for guests who are disabled or have special needs.
“We’ll have absolutely no parking,” she said. “Therapy programs and family parties will have to park on the side of the road and cross the street.”
The Forest Preserves of Cook County has offered to lease the driveway to Sarah’s Stables for an annual permit fee of $10,000 for the next four years, with an option to renew the lease for ten years or more. The agreement also gives the forest preserve the option to buy the property prior to any sale, based on three independent appraisals (which Halladay says she would have to pay for), minus $130,000 for the last 13 years of “unauthorized use.”
“The offer allows Ms. Halladay to continue to maintain her business while fairly compensating the taxpayers of Cook County for use of public land for her company’s benefit,” forest preserve spokesperson Carl Vogel said in an email. “It does not require her to sell Sarah’s Stables now, nor ask her to give us a counteroffer of what the property is worth.”
Vogel added that nobody associated with Sarah’s Stables has “reached out in any way to clarify or discuss the offer, or even acknowledge receipt of the forest preserves’ Dec. 13 email.” He called the proposal to Halladay a “compromise,” and a departure from the forest preserve’s usual cease-and-desist orders to private property owners encroaching on public land.
“The forest preserves has no plans for a meeting and/or hearing to further discuss this issue,” Vogel stated.
According to 2021 property tax records on the Cook County Treasurer website, the estimated combined value of both parcels was $541,190.
Halladay said her 2023 assessment nearly doubled the estimated value of her land at $1.1 million, even after she demolished part of her barn in an attempt to reduce the assessment. Property owners are required to pay 10 percent of the assessed value. In past years she paid around $50,000.
“I will have to pay $110,000. I can’t afford that,” Halladay said. “No barn can. As soon as I sign the agreement, then the lease price will go up along with the property tax, and then I’ll be forced to sell.”
Halladay said she’s willing to enter a permit agreement, even offering to pay ten years in advance, but not the option for the forest preserves to buy her land. Her attorney is making a counter offer on Wednesday, the final day to respond.
“You can’t buy what I have to offer. [The forest preserve] can buy my property anytime they want,” she added.
For the past decade, the Forest Preserves of Cook County has been cracking down on property owners across Cook County who’ve encroached on public lands for private use, such as installing sheds and swing sets, planting gardens, or enlarging back yards into natural ecosystems. This includes using the land between 8220 and 8236 S. Kean Ave. for customer parking for the horse stables.
“They said I have an unofficial trail behind my barn,” Halladay said. “Up until three months ago my barn was on all the maps. The trail has been there for over 100 years.”
If there is “encroachment” it is from cyclists and hikers parking their vehicles in the forest preserve-owned driveway to access the trailhead behind her property to enter the forest preserve, Halladay said.
This isn’t Halladay’s first go-around with the Forest Preserves of Cook County, whom she alleges has threatened her with eminent domain in the past. In addition to pony parties, Sarah’s Stables boards horses and offers trail rides and a petting zoo. Many of the animals she keeps – goats, sheep, ducks, Alpaca llamas and ponies – are rescue animals that she’s pulled from kill pens or saved from neglect and abusive situations.
“Most are little rescue animals,” she said. “We’ve turned them around through therapy and rehabilitation.”
Over the years, Sarah’s Stables has become a haven for children, teens and adults who are wheelchair-bound or have special needs. A certified therapist from Healing Hearts Animal Assisted Therapy runs a therapy program out of Sarah’s Stables.
“I don’t charge for that,” Halladay said.
Karyn Richter credits Sarah’s Stables, where she board-shares a horse, with allowing her to bond for the first time with her son, Michael, 37, who has autism. Her son has befriended one of Halladay’s horses, Titan, who she said has transformed her son’s life.
“If [Halladay] shuts down her horses go with her,” said Richter, who added a video clip to a Change.org petition to save Sarah’s Stables. “It’s not just the emotion that Mike has from his horse, we are a family there. I don’t have to worry about people being mean to him. If Titan gets taken away, it would be devastating for him.”
Meanwhile, the area’s equestrian community has rallied to support Halladay, creating a Facebook group – Save Sarah’s Stables – and starting a petition, gathering over 1,000 signatures online and on paper. Her supporters call the forest preserve’s alleged attempt to force Halladay out “a slap in the face to the equine community.”
“I’m not going to fold like the other stables,” Halladay vowed. “I’m going to stand my ground. Everything we do here is good.”
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