@caesar2164, I understand why this fix is needed (to have a placeholder for any instance that does use a bg image in this area in the Open edX homepage view), but I'm sure why you're using the Bourbon background-image() mixin (http://bourbon.io/docs/#background-image). Could a background-image: property on its own suffice? 

If so, I'd suggest using that as the syntax is easier to follow and produces less compiled code.