Ian, It's an interesting problem but quite different than the typical. Query, did you ever play Green Acres? If it was a Tilly, rather than one he consulted on during his depression era consultations, there is precious little Tilly left. we have been discussing this for several years. Second the failure was largely self-inflicted due to the massive amounts of debt which the club incurred on renovating its beautiful old clubhouse and undertaking several renovation. The bank took a large haircut. Finally, as noted in the article, Northbrook is in no hurry to approve additional housing. Stay tuned.
Don't want to derail this for the Green Acres tangent, but you're right about most of Tilly's work being lost. It's on my render backlog list to do the original version virtually at some point. The holes that are basically originals are 1, 2, 3, 7, 8 (redid green), 9, 10, 11 (but with a terrible bunker added in front of the green), 12 (added pond in front of green), 16 (but from different angle), and 18. 18 is/was the most unchanged hole out there.
In the early 40s, someone very unwisely rearranged several holes on the back nine. Then in the 70s I believe, they turned 2 holes into the driving range and added what became 4 and 5 (worst holes on the course IMO).
When I first heard about the Tilly thing I was very excited and compared the aerials. But it would have been way too much work to restore it and the payoff probably wouldn't have been worth it. I believe that it was the first course in IL with irrigation or something like that.
On the housing topic, it's obviously a challenge with Northbrook. If it weren't for them, an interesting solution would have been to try to keep a limited golf course, like 9 holes interweaving, or re-reroute for a par 3 trail, and then build housing around that and utilize the already renovated club house/ pool, etc as a community center for the housing. Restricted-age living would have been decent.
But there is also the issue of the I-94 spur and the constant noise pollution.