Two years ago it sat as a cornfield in the center of Vernon Hills, tucked between an abandoned Nike missile site, a corporate park and an upscale subdivision.
Now this 8-acre patch of land is scattered with bulldozers, newly-planted Kentucky coffee trees, dirt hills and a winding mud trench-the beginnings of a pond system planners hope to stock with bass, bluegills and even shrimp.
It is difficult to survey this ripped-up landscape today and imagine, by summer’s end, a bucolic rest stop-even harder, perhaps, given Vernon Hills’ reputation as Lake County’s nerve center for suburban sprawl.
But come Aug. 31, when Vernon Hills officials plan to take the wraps off their new “Arbortheater,” this spot could provide not only a haven, but an answer to the village’s image problem.
Like Hoffman Estates and Orland Park, Vernon Hills found itself paying a price for its runaway commercial and residential growth. In all three towns, the seemingly endless stretches of strip malls, mega-malls, office parks and subdivisions left little room for an intimate focal point such as a village green.
But in recent years Orland Park and Hoffman Estates created public open spaces with amphitheaters, the latter even calling it Village Green, and now Vernon Hills is following suit.
“We’re now beginning to see here in the Chicago area more development that sort of goes by the expression `neo-traditionalism,’ and one of the fundamental principles is the concept of a village green or a central place,” said Bob Tesca, who has a national urban planning and consulting firm in Evanston.
“There are two purposes, to enhance the image of the community and, secondly, (to provide) a functional place for a variety of community activities,” he said. “The general characteristic is it’s a flexible space. It’s not overly designed and not overly built up.”
Charles Hanlon, owner of Land Planning Services in St. Charles, said it is important to distinguish between traditional village greens in such places as Wheaton, Hinsdale and Lake Forest, from which “almost everything radiated,” and the modern versions.
“Some people are finding nostalgic reasons for creating these places and sometimes they create them in name only. They really don’t function as they did at one time,” he said. “(But) I wouldn’t discount it as an amenity.”
In Vernon Hills, officials are viewing the Arbortheater as more than an amenity.
“Vernon Hills is sometimes assailed for having no central space other than the mall,” said Assistant Village Manager Craig Malin, a driving force behind the $2.8 million project. “I don’t know if this is the antidote, but it should go a long way towards curing that.”
Hoffman Estates’ village green, completed last summer, is in the Park Center area of Sears’ Prairie Stone development and consists of 12.4 acres of public parkland with lawn seating for 2,000. It includes an area for food and craft fairs and a 1.1-acre wetland area.
Supporters of Baby Richard’s adoptive parents staged a rally there and the site also was used for a Sears’ dedication ceremony.
“The idea of it was an outside gathering place for some village events,” said Carl Adrianopoli, chairman of the village Plan Commission. “As the suburbs develop and expand, you have less flexibility as each year passes. Once in a while, when something like this pops up, you’re fortunate if you can keep it open and keep it green.”
When Orland Park built a municipal complex six years ago, it constructed an amphitheater that rises from a pond to the ground level of three administrative buildings.
“It really projects a positive image,” said Bob Sullivan, community development director. “It’s just a real nice space to explore for people.”
The Vernon Hills Arbortheater, in the Continental Executive Parke off Fairway Drive, is being touted as a combination outdoor amphitheater, arboretum, community garden and veterans memorial-an open-air meeting place for village residents at the hub of a central bike path.
“It’s the geographic heart of the village,” Malin said. “Most people can get there by a 10-minute bike ride.”
Of course, pedaling along traffic-swelled arteries such as Town Line Road and Milwaukee Avenue would take nerves of steel. But at least the promise of rest, relaxation and community will lie at the end of the ride, once the Arbortheater is complete.
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“We didn’t have any common gathering place to have afternoon concerts,” Village Manager Larry Laschen said. “At the same time, we wanted a place where the people in Corporate Woods could go during lunchtime.”
The Arbortheater’s location seemed a natural choice, Laschen said. “It’s right in the middle of thousands of acres of business parks,” making the prospect of an outdoor lunch break convenient to even the most time-conscious wheeler-dealer.
The Arbortheater was made possible in large part by a $1.1 million community cultural fund, composed of fees collected from people moving into new village homes. (Those fees currently run at $300 per home.) Land for the park was donated by Prentiss Properties at the village’s request, and additional funding to plant trees was obtained through a $60,000 Illinois Department of Conservation grant, matched by the village.
As might be expected from a $120,000 investment, trees will be everywhere-nearly 600 in all, including maple, ash, oak and evergreen.
On a recent tour of the site, Malin explained how the park would be divided into several outdoor room-like parts, each isolated from the other by hills, water, greenery and meadows of wildflowers.
“One of the things we wanted to do was separate the rooms with water so that everyone has a lakefront view,” Malin said.
The waterway, comprised of two ponds connected by streams into a kidney-shaped pool, will house state-of-the-art design underneath its calm surface. It will be equipped with a pump system and stocked with a top-to-bottom food chain of fish to devour algae, Malin said.
“Every now and then we want to put trout in there and do a little fly-fishing,” Malin said.
The Arbortheater’s nexus will be its staging area, a concrete-and-steel shell measuring 84 feet in length. A grassy hill will provide the seating; Malin estimates the area will be able to hold 400 spectators.
The stage sits several hundred feet from homes in the Stone Fence Farm development, and neighbors there expressed some concern when they learned about the Arbortheater.
“They heard `outdoor amphitheater,’ and they thought Poplar Creek, the World Theater,” Malin said. “Obviously, we’re not on that scale.”
Mostly, homeowners worried about eager concertgoers cutting through yards to reach the park. Fortunately, Malin said, a steep creek running along the edge of the development provided a natural buffer between homes and the Arbortheater.
Then there was the question of whether the park would be overrun by congestion of cars, in-line skaters and others.
In keeping with the Arbortheater’s pastoral theme, only 20 parking spaces will be on the grounds. Skaters, skateboarders and bicyclists will be encouraged to walk rather than ride through the property.
To ensure that compliance, asphalt walking paths will be paved with Wisconsin flint, creating a texture that makes for smooth walking, “but not ideal for skateboarders and Rollerbladers,” Malin said.
The area, Malin stressed, is meant to be “a mix between Ravinia, the Botanic Garden and the Morton Arboretum on an appropriate scale. And it’s free.”
Not to mention it’s only a short hike from the Vernon Hills Village Hall, where Malin works.
“Who knows?” he said. “Maybe I could come here and have my lunch some time.”