PARK REFERENDUM NOW HAS TWO SIDES

The gloves are now off in the Tuesday, Nov. 4 referendum which will ask La Grange voters whether or not they approve of the sale of a portion of the 17-acre Gordon Park to a private developer proposing to build a mixed-use residential/retail complex there.

Opponents of the land sale lobbied both the Park Board of Commissioners at its Sept. 18 meeting and the Village Board at its Sept. 22 "town meeting" at Spring Avenue School -- but that is where a proponent of the deal also announced her group's pro-referendum efforts.

Dubbed "Citizens for a Great Gordon Park," organizer Julie Workman, an attorney, said the organization was formed by about 10 La Grange residents who are in support of the referenda calling for the sale of 2.82 acres at the park behind the former Rich Port YMCA at La Grange Road and Ogden Avenue.

If approved, the Park Board would sell two parcels, a 2.5-acre and a .77-acre piece of land on either side of the vacated Shawmut Avenue along the north edge of the existing YMCA building, at public auction, as required by law.

Workman, a nine-year resident and former YMCA fitness instructor who told the board she was speaking on behalf of the new organization, said their big effort is one of simply getting out the vote.

"We are concerned citizens who want to get the word out about the referendum," she said, not revealing other member's names. "We want to make sure they get to the bottom of the ballot ... and make sure people are aware of the issue and vote yes."

She stressed a vote of approval will mean a more than $6 million profit to the Park District for a portion of the park that is "totally underutilized" and will leave another 14.7 acres that, with the new money, will be "completely redone."

That, she and Park Director Dean Bissias said in a separate interview, will include two new ballfields, soccer and lacrosse fields, a splash pad, butterfly garden, handball courts, open land and a new drainage system. The land for sale features two storage buildings, an often vandalized playground, two tennis courts and a soccer field, Bissias said.

"The park will no longer flood every time it rains like it does now," she said, adding improvements will also included four new lighted tennis courts and expanded parking.
"It's going to be the envy of all the residents around here," she said. "We want the truth to get out."

But her words were quickly drowned out by opponents of the sale, particularly former 12-year Park Board member Kevin Shields, who promised the Park Board last week he would fight the proposal "tooth and nail" because it is short-sighted.

"I think the person who encouraged you to vote yes ... is being misled. I think a lot of attention has been given to mislead the residents of the village," he said. "AllI hear is 2.82 acres and it's not the case. It is a total loss of 3.5 acres. It is well-established that taking public land and selling it to wonderful profits cause a developer wants it (is wrong). Where is our village planner in preserving our park land, our open space?"

Four days earlier, he convinced the Park Board to agree to work with the nonprofit Park Patrons Around La Grange foundation to help dismantle and sell the metal storage shed and the bricks from its maintenance building, on land proposed to be sold to Atlantic Realty Partners.

The bricks, he said, originally were the pavers used along Ogden Avenue through the village and are a valuable commodity.

He further said the land sale just doesn't make sense.

He said when School Distgrict 105 wanted to sell its 1.5-acre tot lot several years ago, residents "came to the rescue" to save the land and prevent it from being redeveloped as a new residential subdivision.

He called the Gordon Park parcels on the selling block "a beautiful piece of land" with mature trees.

"It's just absurd. We're below the per capita (formula for park land) and we don't even meet half the acreage ... It's just mind-boggling," Shields said. "To me, it doesn't add up. It's going to be a nightmare. You're not going to be able to (keep) that to be a functional intersection.

"'It's going to be the envy of the residents?" he added. "I don't think so. It's going to be such a hassle to get to that park."

Attorney Tom Beyer of La Grange, who also railed against the sale at last week's Park Board meeting, praised the Village Board for delaying action on a proposed land swap with the Park District and said they were inviting more litigation if they approve it as proposed.

As proposed, the village would possibly exchange its parking lot on the YMCA site for a portion of the vacated Shawmut Avenue, that runs east off La Grange Road then turns into grass.

"The swap is being brought forth under the wrong statute," he said."Instead of using the statute specifically relating to swaps -- which require publishing and a public hearing with a 4/5ths majority vote to pass -- what the Park District has done to date is not acceptable."

The Village Board was scheduled to take action Sept. 22 on an intergovernmental agreement and ordinance defining the land exchange, but Village President Liz Asperger said that was on hold until attorneys work out the finer details of the pact.

Beyer said reasons put forth by the Park Board as to why the land should be sold off are "simply invalid," including the fact there were 11 issues involving police there. "To take down the (storage) sheds and build 282 apartment units and have less parkland for all the people that are going to be there makes no sense at all."

The proposed La Grange Place would also include 26 townhouses built into the existing park hill north of Shawmut, parking beneath the 5-story apartment complex built partially on the land to the south of Shawmut and 33,000 square feet of retail frontage in the apartment building and at the intersection.

Resident Harlan Hirt also told trustees he believed the land swap was proposed to avoid a referendum.

"The swap should not be consummated," he said, after handing over a prepared statement to Asperger. "The village does not need to sweeten the deal ... Table your action until the results of the referendum are known."

After a hourlong closed session at the Sept. 18 Park Board meeting, commissioners approved two proposed real estate contracts with ARP, which include offers on two parcels of the park land officials said they are confident will be higher than an auction will fetch.

An auction is required under the law if voters approve the referendum.

The Park Board also approved its end of an intergovernmental agreement that calls for the exchange of a third parcel of land, a vacated part of Shawmut, for a village parking lot along the east side of Locust Avenue adjacent to the park.

Locust runs through the existing parking lot to the building's east. If redeveloped, the road would exit directly onto Ogden, with a proposed traffic light, instead of on an angle with nothing but a stop sign as is currently the case.

The Park Board agreed Aug. 30 to place a referendum on the Nov. 4 ballot after it chose not to appeal a Circuit Court ruling that the amount of land in its original contract with ARP exceeded three acres. Park District lawyers aregued only 2.82 acres were to be sold, but the judge disagreed.

Under state law, the sale of under three acres of park land has to be approved in court and with more than three acres, by the voters.

ARP already reached a settlement with one opponent of the land sale who lives in the adjacent La Grange Towers condominium highrise. ARP said it would set aside 1/2 acre of parkland behind the Towers if it ultimately buys the land in question.