UPDATED - 11/13/09 - 3:15 a.m.
To view a PDF of the actual settlement proposal presented Thursday by the La Grange Friends of the Park, click here.
Attorneys for the La Grange Friends of the Park (LGFP) late Thursday afternoon made public the terms of its latest proposal to end litigation with the Park District of La Grange (PDLG) concerning the latter's efforts to sell 2.82 of Gordon Park to developer Atlantic Realty Partners (ARP) for inclusion in a major redevlopment of the Rich Port YMCA site at La Grange Rd and Ogden Ave.
Joining them in issuing the proposal is Orlando Coryell, who while not a member of the group, launched two earlier and successful efforts to stop PDLG from selling the parkland. His second lawsuit currently is under appeal.
The terms were drawn up at a private meeting held last Saturday, attended by more than half of the LGFP's 20 some odd members and Coryell. The document was then circulated among all of the group's members for review and comment, Tom Beyer, one of its attorneys, said Monday evening.
Copies of the document were released to the media shortly after it was emailed to representatives of PDLG, ARP, the Village of La Grange and the YMCA.
SUMMARY OF THE PROPOSAL
In the proposal put forth Monday, LGFP and Coryell, referred to jointly as Park Friends, would end their respective legal battles with PDLG provided several conditions are met.
Two of those conditions are incorporated from a settlement offer put forth two weeks ago by ARP:
- The developer would forego its planned purchase of Parcel 3, a 2.04-acre tract located directly east of the La Grange Towers condominiums, and purchase from PDLG only Parcel 2, a rectangular plot, roughly three-quarters of acre in size, adjacent to the northeast corner of Parcel 1, which is occupied by the former Rich Port YMCA. This would allow ARP to square off the Y parcel.
- ARP would significantly reduce the scope and density of its redevelopment of the Y site and Parcel 2, a project known as La Grange Place. The number of mid-rise apartments would be reduced from 283 to 236; the commercial space would be reduced from 33,000 square feet to no more than 18,000 square feet; and parking garage beneath the apartment complex would be reduced in size by approximately 25 percent.
ARP President Richard Aaronson said Monday that the project likely would have been modified even if his company was able to purchase both park parcels due to the decline of the real estate market since the project was announced.
LGFP's proposal contains some additional conditions that would require the cooperation of PDLG and the village.
PDLG would agree to put not less than 50 percent of the net proceeds from the sale of Parcel 2 into a trust fund for the purpose of acquiring new parkland. Also, each year thereafter, PDLG would additionally put the equivalent of the 10 percent of the proceeds into the fund.
"At one of our initial settlement conferences with [Cook County Circuit Court Judge Susan Fox Gillis], she asked about using some of the sales proceeds to buy parkland and the park district offered exactly that," Beyer said. "We’ll take them up on what they offered."
The village would have to abandon plans to reopen Shawmut Ave from La Grange Rd to Locust Ave. The latter road currently provides access to Gordon Park from Ogden Ave. PDLG earlier this year transferred a vacated portion of Shawmut Ave, which is now mainly open green space, to the village in exchange for a parking area of similar size located along Locust Ave. Under the terms of LGFP's proposal, the parcels would revert to their original owners.
Patrick Benjamin, director of community development, said Monday the village believes the restored roadway is still needed to provide direct access to La Grange Rd for traffic generated by both ARP's development and the new facilities PDLG intends to construct in Gordon Park.
Aaronson said Monday that his development could likely make do with the access provided by a short, existing paved portion of Shawmut Ave that connects the Y parking lot to La Grange Rd.
If the vacated portion of Shawmut Ave were restored to a full roadway, current plans call for ARP to foot the bill. Aaronson said that he has discussed with village officials the possibility of reducing the number of public improvements originally agreed to, or extending the timeframe for completing them.
Among the improvements ARP originally agreed to fund was a makeover of the intersection of La Grange Rd and Ogden Ave. Before that deal was struck, village officials intended to spend $1 million of its money improving the intersection, but since has committed those funds to the renovation of the La Grange Theatre.
Beyer said Thursday that LGFP believes reopening Shawmut Ave, in addition to eliminating green space, would reduce the viability of Parcel 3.
"It would make the space unusable in the sense that if you tried to use it as a recreation field, as the youth soccer leagues have done in recent years, you run the risk of having someone chase a ball into the road and into a car," Beyer said.
He said the group also fears that having a roadway adjacent to Parcel 3 would tempt PDLG into making another effort to sell the land for development at a future date.
That is why LGFP's proposed terms also call for an agreement by PDLG and the village to legally preclude themselves from attempting any future sale of Parcel 3.
"In perpetuity might be a little extreme," Beyer admits. "Should we be tying people's hands forever? Probably not. If the park district and village come back and say 25 years, we might say OK."
But eliminating the new roadway and protecting Parcel 3 "very definitely soothes some [LGFP members] who are just adamantly against the sale of any parkland at all," Beyer said.
A final condition of the settlement proposal would provide for the reimbursement of expenses incurred by its members and Coryell in fighting the sale.
"We're only talking about out-of-pocket expenses, probably in the neighborhood of $25,000," Beyer said.
Most of those expenses were incurred by Coryell during his objection to PDLG's first and unsuccessful attempt to gain court approval of the parkland sale. Coryell's attorney in that lawsuit was Mark Daniel of the law firm Rathje & Woodward in Wheaton.
"One of the things that I find so hard to take is that some people are acting like [Coryell] is the most obnoxious person on the planet [for opposing the sale]," Beyer said. "He's somebody who put his money where his mouth is."
Beyer said that he and his co-counsels, Mark Wohlberg and Joan Johnson, are not seeking any compensation for their pro bono representation of LGFP in the current petition hearing, or of Coryell in his second lawsuit that successfully voided the public auction last January at which ARP was the sole bidder.
PDLG officials and their attorneys so far have not been actively involved in settlement negotiations outside of the courthouse, both Beyer and Aaronson said.
Yet John Shapiro, an attorney for PDLG, told Judge Gillis
Tim Kelpsas, president of the park board, Monday told the Suburban Life newspaper his board was waiting for a formal written proposal to which they could respond.
“They have never submitted to any party any proposal that says we will stop suing if this or this happens,” Kelpsas said.
Thursday's proposal appears to have changed that.
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