The village of Burr Ridge has taken the unusual step of finishing a church’s landscaping project due to the religious institution missing project deadlines and neighbors’ growing impatience with the lack of progress.
Village officials decided Monday in a 4-2 vote to take the $45,000 landscaping bond that St. Mark Coptic Orthodox Church posted when undertaking an $11 million addition to the church, located at 15W455 79th St., and complete the “minimum required” work before winter.
The church had to post the $45,000 to guarantee that the plantings, grading and other work approved for the grounds surrounding St. Mark’s would occur after village approval of the expansion plan.
Village staff noted the church failed to properly complete grading and landscaping along its south lot line before the winter of 2015-16, deemed a priority due to the impact on the nearby Pine Tree Subdivision residents. The work was completed, but not in an acceptable manner, according to village administrator Steve Stricker, noting that grass has not grown on the berm area.
The rest of the landscaping, as well as clean up of the site, was supposed to occur this summer, he said.
“We were disappointed that last summer at least the grading part of the project along Pine Tree wasn’t done … We had meetings in the wintertime. We had meetings in March to try to get them moving and thinking about trying to get this work done,” Stricker said. “It didn’t happen and what was done was done haphazardly.”
Village engineer Dave Preissig said that 99 percent of the trees that have been planted on the site do not meet the requirements of the church expansion plans that were approved by the village in October 2014.
He said the church went above and beyond village requirements with its plans for nearly 2,500 trees, shrubs and flowers on the site. The “minimum required” work that will be done by Desiderio Landscaping, the lowest of three bids the village got for the project, will include 75 trees, grading work and other landscaping. The contact calls for the work to be completed by Nov. 1.
Refaat Malek, an engineer who has been overseeing the expansion project for St. Mark’s, said he has contractors and subcontractors who could do the landscaping work for half of the $45,000 the village will pay to Desiderio. He said that the church had every intention of being a good neighbor and completing the landscaping work but has been focused on completing the building. He said the church right now is financially strapped as its members have financed the expansion effort.
“There are no icons,” Malek said, showing the board a photo of the church’s interior. “The pews are not even completed.”
In more than two hours of discussion, village trustees worked to try to find a compromise that would appease frustrated neighbors and buy the church more time for the landscaping, even considering the hiring of the church’s contractor as a cost-saving move. However, it was ultimately decided that the only way to ensure the work gets done by winter is for the village to run the project with its own contractor.
Voting in favor of using the church’s landscaping bond to the get the work done were trustees Guy Franzese, Al Paveza, Paula Murphy and Janet Ryan Grasso.
Voting against the measure were trustees Diane Bolos and Tony Schiappa.
Pine Tree resident Bud Arquilla urged the village to use the landscaping bond to get the work done, saying that the landscaping work has not been managed correctly. He said simple things like spreading black dirt, determining proper grading requirements and planting trees as required have not been followed.
The former builder said 30 or 40 trees were planted on the church’s berm over the past two weeks, but “not according to the plan.”
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“They put them around the perimeter wherever the heck they wanted to put them,” Arquilla said. “It’s inexplicable. There is no management on that site or if there is, it is mismanagement.”
Malek said church members would rather take care of the project and not have the village step in to do the work.
“If you do it, you take the responsibility and you remove us from the responsibility,” Malek told Village Board members. “We are too proud for you to take that responsibility.”
Mayor Mickey Straub said the village taking over the project should be “somewhat of a relief” for church leaders in the bigger picture of their expansion efforts.
Kevin Beese is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.