The push to pass a $20 million bond issue to buy open land has begun as village officials and members of new committees try to convince residents in the few weeks remaining before the vote that this is a now-or-never deal.
“If we don’t get the lands now, we will never get the opportunity,” Mayor Dan McLaughlin said.
At a meeting last Wednesday, the village signed up residents to host coffees, develop a phone bank, go door to door and pass out “SOS–Save Open Space” posters.
The village also will mail a brochure to each of the approximately 18,000 households in Orland Park this week that outlines the benefits of approving the tax question and buying 300 acres of real estate.
McLaughlin said the $5,000 it costs to print and mail the brochure will come from money from the Open Lands Golf Outing he hosts each year.
“It is the law that the village cannot promote a referendum. The village can’t pay for something that says `vote yes’ or `vote no,'” McLaughlin said. “I am going to be out there promoting it along with Village Board members because we believe in it, but we didn’t want to put the village in a position of having to pay” for the brochure.
About 30 residents showed up at the meeting last week and pledged their support. However, two residents questioned why the village didn’t spend some money sooner or earmark future funds.
Debbie Peinovich, president of the Eagle Ridge II Condominium Association, said she believes the referendum is a “last-ditch effort.”
“Instead of them stopping the rezoning of some of these parcels, they want us to pay $20 million to buy them,” she said. “They should stop allowing some of these developments from getting the rezoning.”
Another woman, who refused to give her name, asked why the village didn’t buy land at 143rd Street and La Grange Road instead of allowing a mall to be built there.
But McLaughlin said the village is only going after property zoned for residential use.
“That is commercial property, and it wouldn’t be economical to purchase it,” he said. “Buying commercial property wouldn’t save us from the tax burden of educating children that come from these developments.”
The brochure says that if the 300 acres the village has earmarked were developed, as many as 900 housing units could be built with an expected average of 1.5 children per home. The cost of educating those 1,350 children would be approximately $7,500 each, or $10.1 million annually, according to school district figures.
The Institute of Transportation Engineers estimates that each home would create 10 vehicle trips a day on village roads.
“It’s an economic issue and a quality of life issue,” open lands commission chairman Lou Mule said.
The 300 acres were selected by McLaughlin, along with the Open Lands Commission and the village’s director of community development and staff. Fourteen sites were targeted.
Village Manager Rick Boehm said all the owners of the land the village is seeking have been contacted. Some have shown interest in selling, but others are preparing for development.
Currently, the village accepts land donations from developers for parks and required bike paths and walkways.
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