After the Lisle Village Board heard from opponents and supporters of the plan to build a new football stadium at Benet Academy, Board members voted unanimously at their April 6 meeting to approve the project proposal. The vote met a mixed reaction.
School officials are elated by the prospect of a new Baumgartner-Gilbert Stadium, which will allow Benet to play home games on the campus instead of across the street at Benedictine University. The stadium will also be used for a host of other events.
But some residents who live in the Oak Hill South subdivision just west of the school are far from thrilled. They are concerned about noise and lights.
Next comes the permitting process that’s used for any new construction. Benet officials hope work begins this summer with the first football game there in 2027.
By agreement with the village, there will be a limit of 54 days when the field can be lighted for evening events. Included in that are up to six football games on Friday nights.
Benet Academy President Bill Myers said the student body was told the good news on the PA system on Tuesday.
“We thanked the kids for their help,” Myers said, noting that four students spoke on behalf of the effort at a Village Board meeting in January.
“It was truly a team effort,” Myers said.
At the Jan. 12 board meeting, a decision was tabled until Monday night (April 6), allowing the village and school time to work together to hammer out a plan.
That resulted in a smaller scoreboard, seating capacity of 1,400 rather than 2,000 and moving the alumni plaza farther from homes.
Myers said it was about “meeting our neighbors where they’re at.”
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The scoreboard was one of the “more significant changes,” Myers said, noting it will be smaller and the video screen would be lower.
The stadium was moved another 15 feet east of the original location.
“We made sure the language was readable in a way so you didn’t have to go to law school to understand it,” Myers said.
“We firmly intend to adhere to do and abide by the conditions we agreed to,” he said.
An example was that neighbors voiced concerns about the alumni plaza, which had been on the western portion of the property to the northern side, farther from the subdivision.
The main scoreboard with the video board will be on the south side of the field, not facing houses.
Village Manager Jeff Cook commented, “It’s been a long process. Six different hearings before the planning and zoning commission last summer. There’s been a good deal of effort that has been put in by board members, by Benet and by residents, all in the effort of finding a reasonable compromise.”
The board discussed the plan before voting.
Mayor Mary Jo Mullen, who lives in the subdivision, acknowledged to the crowd “some of you are not going to be happy. Some will be super excited.”
She added, “just be kind to each other after this meeting concludes. It’s going to be hard, I know.”
Trustee Thomas Duffy, said he initially thought the proposed stadium was “too large.”
However, Duffy ultimately decided to vote in favor of the proposal because “I feel comfortable with the conditions and where this project has moved to.”
He noted that the village “received a lot of emails in favor of this project (from the neighborhood).” And it has heard from opponents, too.
“There are many ways to define a public benefit,” he said. “(At) an educational institution, extracurriculars are part of an educational mission, (whether) that’s a drama club to a sports team.”
Trustee Meg Sims added that “the best settlement usually means both sides are unhappy because everybody had to give something.”
“It was a difficult station, but Benet made concessions and revisions to the plan,” said Cook, the village manager. “Ultimately the Board felt it rose to the level of warranting approval.”
Some concessions include an overflow parking plan, landscaping between the stadium and homes and sound studies.
“There’s a condition that talks about operating a sound monitoring system and supplying that information to the village. It’s fairly in-depth,” Cook said.
Cook noted that residents from the neighborhood spoke for and against the plan.
One of those against was Dina Elgowainy, whose parents have lived in their home just west of the stadium since 2007. She said they will probably put their home on the market.
“House values will depreciate,” she said. “It’s unfortunate. We fought. Fought a lot.”
Her father, Amgad Elgowainy, was among those who hired an attorney to fight the plan.
“We’re really disappointed. They said they’ll tweak the lights a bit, lower the noise a bit. That’s all they had to do to get the approval,” she said.
She thinks that soundproofing the house would cost at least $60,000.
Across the street, James Mercer was visiting his parents, Bill and Martha, who have been there since 1986, he said, adding his dad had been a linebacker coach at Benet.
When asked about Benet’s plan, he didn’t hold back on his criticisms.
He’s worried about noise from the football stadium, especially at night.
“It’s going to be even louder, even brighter. And they’ll rent it out to anybody who pays the money,” Mercer, 43, said.
Myers said the opponents and proponents “handed themselves professionally” Monday night. About 20 spoke against the plan, he said.
He’d prefer to to see the stadium built on the east side of Benet’s property, farther from the houses, but that’s not happening.
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“But I do think for the most part, people were honest and acted in good faith,” Myers said.
Myers said the project “is in the permitting process” and the plan is to have the stadium ready for the 2027 football season.
Plans call for installation of two synthetic turf fields, track, stadium lighting, press box, bleachers, long jump and pole-vaulting pit, scoreboard, time clock, modified parking lot, multifunction building and storage buildings.
The varsity football team has played its home games at Benedictine University across the street since 2005.
While football will be the big draw, the stadium also will be used for soccer, lacrosse, girls flag football, track matches and physical education classes.
Mike Shoemaker, 56, who was out walking Lucy, his German shepherd Wednesday afternoon, has lived for 11 years in the neighborhood.
He looks forward to the project.
“I like it. I think it will jack up the price of my house. I’m getting close to retirement. It’s the right thing to do for Benet Academy, for the kids. I don’t have a problem with it,” Shoemaker said.
Myers said “at the end of it, I’m really humbled. It takes a huge team to make this happen. We had over 1,000 supporters (who worked on making it happen).”
“It’s absolutely a community effort and I’m proud of where we’re going and the future of Benet,” Myers said.