La Grange village officials would have to see a revised site plan before they could determine whether an extension of Shawmut Ave is still needed for the significantly downsized redevelopment of the former Rich Port YMCA parcel proposed last month by Atlantic Realty Partners, Village President Liz Asperger said at Monday night's regular meeting of the village board.
"I think you are quite accurate in stating that it is not appropriate for the village to have a position unless a project is put forward," Asperger said in response to resident Harlan Hirt, who addressed the matter during the portion of Monday's meeting set aside for public comment.
Hirt is one of 20 residents who this past summer formed an association called the La Grange Friends of the Park to oppose the most recent petition effort by the Park District of La Grange to sell two parcels from Gordon Park to ARP for inclusion in its redevelopment of the Y property, a project known as La Grange Place.
In his comments Monday night to the village board, Hirt referred to a story published Monday by La Grange Today, which reported that Cook County Circuit Court Judge Susan Fox Gillis, who is considering the petition, wanted to know the village's position on whether the Shawmut extension was still needed.
Judge Gillis said Friday that knowing the village's intentions for Shawmut Ave would aid her in mediating settlement negotiations between the Park District and the Park Friends. Friday's talks, which lasted more than two hours, deadlocked over the fate of the extension.
The Park Friends are demanding that the Shawmut Ave extension be eliminated. They say that it would destroy three-quarters of an acre of parkland on its own and would provide the Park District with an incentive to attempt to sell at some future date a 2.04-acre parcel north of the vacated roadway.
In settlement negotiations, the Park District has agreed back away from its original plans to sell the north parcel to ARP. In exchange, the Park Friends have withdrawn their objection to the sale of a 0.78-acre parcel south of the vacated roadway, which would allow ARP to square off the northeastern corner of the Y parcel.
However, Park District attorneys Friday told Judge Gillis that extending Shawmut Ave eastward to connect with north-south Locust Ave, which enters Gordon Park from Ogden Ave, is still necessary to provide improved access to the new facilities it hopes to build. Especially important, they said, is access for emergency vehicles.
In any case, the same attorneys contend, the fate of the extension is no longer in the hands of the Park District. Ownership of vacated Shawmut Ave was transferred to the village earlier this year in exchange for a village-owned parking lot along Locust Ave, adjacent to the park.
The swap agreement has a reverter clause that returns ownership of Shawmut Ave to the Park District if the developer has not commenced construction by Dec. 31, an scenario almost certain to transpire. The agreement can be extended but that has not yet occurred.
Park District attorneys also told the judge that village officials had communicated to them strong support for constructing the extension. Asperger's statement that village officials could not make a decision on the extension without seeing a revised site plan from ARP appears to contradict that contention.
ARP President Richard Aaronson has said that the smaller version of La Grange Place likely would not require extending Shawmut Ave, as the 23 townhomes ARP planned to build on the north parcel have been eliminated from its plans. Aaronson said the remaining project, consisting of 236 mid-rise apartments and no more than 18,000 square feet of commercial space likely be serviced by an existing portion of Shawmut Ave, a short stretch that connects the YMCA parking lot to La Grange Rd
Under the terms of ARP's original plan and agreement with the village, the developer agreed to pay for the costs of building the road extension. Aaronson said he has asked the village to reconsider the package of public improvements ARP agreed to fun, including those related to the intersection of La Grange Rd and Ogden Ave.
Before ARP can submit any revised site plan to the village for consideration, it must reach an agreement with the YMCA on new terms for the purchase of the former Rich Port property. A YMCA spokesman announced Dec. 1 that it had rejected a revised offer from ARP on the grounds that it did not provide seed money "substantial" enough to allow the Y to acquire property elsewhere in the area for a new facility.
Watch a video of the comments made Monday night by Asperger and Hirt.