Following scathing testimony Jan. 22 from supporters of the River Forest Public Library and nearby residents, River Forest School District 90 tried to offer an eleventh-hour amendment to the parking plan for its controversial makeover to Roosevelt Middle School.
Residents opposing the project submitted a petition with about 600 signatures to the River Forest Development Review Board in December and had waited patiently for two months to present verbal testimony against the project’s parking plan.
Public sentiment has been overwhelmingly against the proposal to reduce the number of on-site parking spaces at Roosevelt Middle School from 59 to 36, which opponents say falls far below the zoning code requirement of 46 spaces. The plan also calls for closing the north parking lot, shared with the library, during school hours.
“For this reason, we have decided to add an element in the plan that will add eight parking sports to the Lathrop lot on the northeast side, originally designated as outside classroom space,” said District 90 Board President Patrick Meyer.
Though the process, intended to determine whether the project meets village standards rather than re-evaluating its merits, was supposed to be limited to only two hearing dates, it’s now stretched into five. The hearing will continue at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 5 at Whittier Elementary in Oak Park.
Meyer’s announcement resulted in gasps from the audience of about 40 onlookers and frustration from normally emotionless Development Review Board Chairman Frank Martin, who impatiently asked whether there was a written parking amendment. At the end of the hearing, Martin said he would not accept the verbal amendment for the additional parking spots, but if a written amendment were submitted, he would review it with the Development Review Board’s lawyer.
District 90’s board approved the overall project in September, following three years of development by staff and volunteers. In addition to the parking plan, the project calls for landscaping, lighting improvements and the installation of a stormwater management system.
Each of the opponents said they approved of most of the proposal but objected only to the parking plan.
Library Trustee Joan O’Connor told the Development Review Board the library owns the building, but the River Forest Park District owns the land on which it sits. Though Roosevelt graciously has shared its north parking lot, it’s owned entirely by the school district, she added.
Mark Coe, the library’s president from 1999 to 2011, said insufficient parking for patrons was a frequent topic during his tenure on the board. He also said, to his knowledge, the library had acted on faith and never entered into an intergovernmental agreement with District 90 for use of Roosevelt’s north parking lot.
“Maybe we should have done it, and maybe I should have been more aware of it,” he admitted.
Joseph Huberty, an architect specializing in libraries for Milwaukee-based Engborg Anderson, testified he was hired to perform a parking study by Library Director Sophia Anastos. Using a trio of methodologies, including local ordinance requirements, the number of seats in the library and a rule-of-thumb of two to five spaces for every thousand residents, he concluded the library requires between 41 and 63 spaces.
Though Roosevelt offers its Lathrop lot as part of the plan, Huberty said that is likely to result in a loss of library patrons, many of whom are children, seniors and disabled individuals.
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“The people visiting the library more likely would be displaced out of the north lot. That would complicate their visit,” he said.
Library Trustee Deborah Hill told the Development Review Board the parking plan is not consistent with the goals and policies of the village of River Forest Comprehensive Plan.
“As stated above, the Comprehensive Plan … urges the village to work with the library to get more parking, not the removal of almost half of the parking spots contiguous to the library, as proposed by D90’s proposal,” she said.