Only 27 percent of residents support renovation of Gordon Park, according to Park District's own survey

Only 27 percent of residents support renovating Gordon Park, according to a survey of households conducted for the Park District of La Grange by the Public Research Group (PRG) of Naperville.

The finding is among the results of a mail and telephone survey that PRG conducted this past spring in its preparation of a comprehensive master plan that Park District officials will use to determine spending priorities for programs and capital projects over the next five years.

A 60-page report produced by PRG that describes the study and its findings in detail has been posted on the Park District website.

Renovation of Gordon Park was included in the survey among a list of 11 capital projects for which respondents were asked to indicate their support or lack thereof. 

While Gordon Park tied with expanding the Recreation Center as the top vote-getter, both fell significantly short of a twelfth choice on the list: Do Nothing, which was supported by 43 percent of the respondents.

In a second list selection offered in the survey, respondents were asked to indicate their support for various proposed amenities.

For nearly all of the amenities specifically included in an existing master plan for Gordon Park, support was notably less than that expressed for the renovation overall: Walking/biking paths (35%), slashpad (23%), fitness stations (22%), band shell (14%), flower beds and landscaping (14%), soccer field with natural grass (10%).

The amenity garnering the most support was an outdoor swimming pool (43%). There are no current plans for a swimming pool anywhere in the district.

The results of PRG's survey may prove problematic for the Park District's attorneys who, in a Cook County circuit court hearing scheduled to begin Tuesday morning, are likely to continue their argument that selling 2.82 acres of Gordon Park for private development is necessary to fund a multi-million-dollar renovation of Gordon Park whose plans already have reached the point of soliciting bids for construction.

The hearing before Judge Susan Fox Gillis will determine if it is in the public interest for the Park District to dispose of the 2.82 acres, consisting of two parcels of parkland directly north of the former Rich Port YMCA site.

Under a provision of the Illinois Park District Code, a circuit court judge can directly approve the sale of parkland if the amount is less than three acres. The statute also requires that the land no longer be needed or useful for park purposes.

In a resolution adopted Sept. 20, the La Grange park district board 0f commissioners emphasized the link between the the sale of parkland and the renovation of Gordon Park.

"[T]here is a rational relationship between the proposed sale [...] and the generation of revenue to support the proposed improvements for Gordon Park."

Park District officials and residents who support using the sale proceeds to pay for the renovation, often have pointed to a Nov. 2008 referendum as evidence that a majority of residents agree with them.

In that now two-year-old referendum, district voters approved the sale by a margin of 55 to 45 percent.

The very current PRG study, on the other hand, indicates that, for whatever reasons, renovation of Gordon Park no longer enjoys a plurality of support.

In its report, PRG states that the methodology of its survey—it received 447 completed surveys by mail and conducted 147 telephone surveys—is solid.

"The mail and telephone findings are generalizeable to the entire population of Park District of La Grange residents within a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5% at a 95% confidence level because the samples were substantially large and randomly selected," the report said. "The mail and telephone surveys, therefore, represent the most valid findings of the public needs assessment data gathering process."

PRG noted that it also conducted a parallel "website and office" survey, in which the same questionnaire used in the mail and telephone survey was posted on the Park District website and also could be accessed via a public terminal installed in the lobby of the Recreation Center. PRG also emailed survey invitations to everyone subscribing to the Park District's email blasts.

Of the 127 completed responses obtained through those channels, a slightly higher number (30%) supported renovating Gordon Park.

Because the respondents in the parallel survey were "self-selected, not randomly selected," the results "are not generalizable to the entire population of the residents of the Park District," the report said.

Comments

[Be Informed]

Wouldn't your readers like to be informed by taking note that this is old news, first reported by the online newspaper La Grange Patch?

http://lagrange.patch.com/articles/with-no-cash-to-back-budget-gordon-park-renovation-tabled

Also, the Park District survey is not directly comparable to the referendum. The survey did not focus on a land-swap for renovations, but instead focused on spending tax dollars on renovations.

[William Dobias]

Yes, Beth, but the information for the referendum focused on the perceived tax benefits of building La Grange Place. Support included District 102 actively soliciting its parents for votes for the referendum because of the net gain in income the school district thought they could receive. The referendum had little to do with the rebuilding of Gordon Park.

[Be Informed]

Your view is one view. That view seems to be narrowly viewed to support your personal effort to stop the Park District from selling land directly behind the La Grange Towers condo building at 141 N. La Grange Road. According to your Village Board testimony, you live there. People might view your concern to be motivated by the immediate adjacency of the land for sale and that building.

So if you take in to acount what this development would have done for all of La Grange at a time when the economy was hurting and everyone was predicting a recession and a serious downturn of incoming tax dollars to taxing agencies, the referendum for the sale of 2.82 acres of Gordon Park had everything to do with the rebuilding of Gordon Park, and the increased tax revenues not only to District 102, but also to District 204, the Village, the Library, the Park District...I think also to COD and even the mosquito abatement district. Check your real estate tax bill to be sure who all would have benefited.
The mention of District 102 really matters to people who need that school to thrive to keep that school in the top schools in Illinois and to keep their property values up...and if someone with kids wanted to move in to 141 N. La Grange Road with kids, that would be a pretty important consideration.

[Taxpayer of La Grange]

This 55%/45% is so old it's irrelevant. The key was 55% supported the LEGAL sale of the property. How many % then or now support the ILLEGAL sale of park land? Which is what the courts have determined was proposed. PDLG get out of the development business, let all your attorneys go, and move on.

[Beth Palmer]

Hello all. This is Beth Palmer, editor of La Grange Patch. I'm not "Be Informed" and I'm not sure who is. Thom, this is the first time I'm seeing these comments and the similar ones on other articles.