Oak Park and River Forest High School District 200 officials believe they may have found a partner and a site in their quest to replace two 87-year-old swimming pools on campus.
Board President John Phelan announced March 16 the district is working with the village of Oak Park and may move its tennis program to the parking lot south of Village Hall.
“This could represent a cost savings to the district and the village,” he said.
The district has a self-imposed deadline of April 23 to find a site to which either the baseball, softball or tennis program can be moved to make way for a new pool in the west field of the high school campus.
After convening a third committee in about as many years, the District 200 School Board decided Jan. 13 not to seek a referendum in the April 7 election on a new 50-meter long course pool expected to cost upwards of $35 million. The next time the district can seek a referendum is spring of 2016.
The board instead agreed to continue weighing options, including finding a site and partner for one of the other sports programs and to continue to communicate the need for and cost of a new pool so the referendum stands a chance of passing. Some residents, however, have expressed doubt the district can pass a referendum because of a $115 million fund balance that has accumulated over the past decade, which could allow the district to build a pool using only its savings.
The west field also remains controversial in that public sentiment heavily favors building on the site of the village-owned garage just south of the school. If the board is unable to find a suitable off-campus site or partner by its April 23 meeting, the last before a new board is seated in May, members have agreed they will consider the garage site.
Though Phelan offered few details about the informal talks between District 200 and village officials, he said the discussions involve building a parking garage.
There are some questions regarding the success of such a plan.
Oak Park Elementary District 97, then headed by Peter Barber who now serves as a village trustee, and the Oak Park Park District in 2012 also explored the possibility of erecting a joint administration building on the parking lot site behind Village Hall. That plan also included a possible underground parking garage.
The Park District backed out of the partnership days after a community meeting at which neighbors opposed the plan, in part because of the high price tag for an underground garage. Residents also opposed the plan because of traffic and environmental reasons.
More Top Picks Best Semi Modular Synthesizers
The taxing bodies since have gone their separate ways to plan their administration buildings.
The Oak Park Village Board also discussed the potential project at the end of its March 16 meeting.
“We’ve had preliminary discussions with officials at D200 concerning a new option for relocating an OPRF sport offsite,” said Trustee Bob Tucker. “The concept is to use the area south of where we’re sitting now, the ugly parking lot behind us, as a space to potentially move one of the sports, potentially tennis.”
Tucker went on to say the plan could result in cost savings for D200 and the village as well as providing a community amenity for the neighborhood around village hall.
“But it needs to work financially for everyone involved … and certainly the neighbors around Village Hall have to be engaged in this process,” said Tucker.
Village President Anan Abu-Taleb added that village staff and D200 staff had been putting their heads together to consider the best way to handle to potential project to help out the school district. He said the project isn’t small, but he considers it a potential win-win investment for both Oak Park and Distict 200 for the next 50 or 100 years.
“We’d move our parking lot basically underground, that would not impact any property of the [village’s tax base], the community would have access to that extra space, and it would beautify this neighborhood and increase property values,” said Abu-Taleb. “But of course as Bob said, cost is important. But we have to look at cost as a whole, between us and Oak Park River Forest High School and the other taxing agencies and we have to look at the net amount before we make a decision.”
Rebecca R. Bibbs and Alex V. Hernandez are freelance reporters for Pioneer Press.