An eleventh-hour effort by developer Atlantic Realty Partners (ARP) to forge a settlement in the legal battle over the proposed sale of land from Gordon Park apparently was unsuccessful, attorneys for the Park District of La Grange and La Grange Friends of the Park told Cook County Circuit Court Judge Susan Fox Gillis Thursday.
A disappointed Judge Gillis consequently instructed the attorneys to prepare for a formal hearing to decide whether or not the Park District can sell 2.82 acres of land to ARP. The developer would include the parkland in a redevelopment of the former Rich Port YMCA property, assuming ARP can reach an agreement with YMCA officials on a purchase price for the parcel.
Park Friends attorney Tom Beyer told Gillis that ARP President Richard Aaronson had told him a settlement appeared within reach following a new round of talks between the developer and at least one member of the Park District board of commissioners.
Beyer said he had spoken with Aaronson several times during the past week and a half and that Aaronson said that park officials had indicated they might agree to postpone for at least five years any future attempt to sell the larger of the two parcels of parkland in dispute.
Beyer said Aaronson also told him park officials said they likely would support a similar moratorium on a land swap with the village that would allow an extension of Shawmut Ave, which the Park Friends oppose.
The Park Friends have been seeking a ten-year moratorium on any future park land sale, and are adamantly opposed to any extension of Shawmut Ave.
But Beyer's account was refuted flatly by Rob Bush, the Park District's general counsel, who told the judge that no such deal was forthcoming.
Bush said a telephone conversation he had with Aaronson earlier on Thursday was their first contact in weeks.
Reached by phone on Friday, Aaronson said he did not have time to comment on the matter.
Bush said the Park District was willing to postpone any future attempt to sell the northern parcel only during the period ARP's development was under construction, a duration he estimated as no more than three yearss.
As to the fate of the Shawmut Ave extension, Bush told the judge that was in the hands of the village as the vacated roadway had been swapped early last year for a parcel owned by the village that adjoins Gordon Park along Locust Ave.
Beyer countered that the land swap had a reverter clause which took effect Dec. 31 because construction on Y redevelopment had not begun by that date. Consequently, the Park District was once again the legal owner of vacated Shawmut Ave and could therefore decide its fate, Beyer said.
"They [park officials] have control over [road]," Beyer said to Gillis. "What they are saying is they don't want to settle and want an excuse for not settling."
Bush said park officials approached the settlement talks in earnest. "They have spent $100,000 trying to settle this case," he said.
Beyer noted that Aaronson has stated that the road extension is not needed now that ARP has significantly reduced the size and scope of the project it planned to build, known as La Grange Place.
Beyer suggested that the money ARP would save by not having to build the roadway, which he estimated at $1 million, could be used to increase the money ARP would pay the YMCA for its parcel.
YMCA officials in early December announced that they had canceled their plans to sell the Rich Port parcel to ARP because the developer had proposed a reduction in the purchase price that was substantially below what they said was needed in order to purchase land elsewhere on which to build a new facility.
Beyer said YMCA officials told him they would still consider a sale to ARP if the developer could improve its offer.
Bush acknowledged the reverter clause but said the Park District board had voted at its regular meeting Dec. 17 to extend the deadline on the land swap. He said the village board of trustees also planned to take action to extend the deadline.
Village Manager Bob Pilipiszyn in a conversation two weeks ago with this reporter confirmed that the village board would consider an extension of the land swap deadline, as early as its regular meeting scheduled for Jan. 25.
At a planning session the board held last weekend, Pilipiszyn proposed that trustees consider committing to the land swap even if ARP's project is abandoned, citing that the Shawmut Ave extension was a vital component in any future redevelopment of both the YMCA property and Gordon Park.
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