Arlington Heights Mayor pledges public will have ‘full … fair’ say in Chicago Bears’ plan to transform old site into new stadium

Arlington Heights village leaders Monday promised concerned citizens a say in the impact the Chicago Bears’ proposed NFL stadium development may have on the village if the Bears move ahead with redeveloping the former Arlington International Racecourse site.

Mayor Tom Hayes promised two residents who, at the Village Board meeting Monday night, voiced concerns about the football team’s proposal that they “and other members of the public will have a full and fair opportunity to provide input before any votes are taken.”

For months, the village has walked a narrow path between asserting its control over development decisions on the 326-acre racecourse site and keeping the door open to the ambitious residential, commercial and entertainment development the team has proposed for the area. The Bears signed a purchase agreement last year with racecourse land owner Churchill Downs Inc.

[ [Don’t miss] Will the Chicago Bears leave Soldier Field for Arlington Heights? Here’s what to know. ]

Village leaders continue to emphasize how tentative the negotiations are, though some who spoke during the public comment portion of the meeting Monday night said they felt that the closing on the property sale and eventual development were guaranteed.

Village residents Peggy Lane, 75, and Roberta Fisher asked trustees for a firmer timeline of how an eventual purchase and redevelopment could play out.

Lane said she was concerned about what would happen with parking and transportation on game days.

“I just wonder what the impact on our neighborhoods would be,” she said. “I wonder if they’ll use our condo parking lot. They could be using our parking lot for games, or other activities – that stadium would probably be used for other things.”

Fisher asked the board what kind of input she and other members of the public could have and asked how preliminary the plans really were.

“If [the predevelopment agreement] is going to be signed on [Nov. 7], it seems like it’s going to happen,” she said, referencing the Village Board meeting date at which a pre-development agreement between the team and the village is set to be on the agenda.

The document, worked out between village staff and the team, lays out the Bears’ proposal for redeveloping Arlington Park and the terms on which the village and the team have so far agreed to work together.

“All we’re doing right now is trying to assist the Bears in closing on the contract and purchase agreement,” Hayes told Fisher and Lane. “[The team] doesn’t own the property yet.”

Later, Fisher and Lane told Pioneer Press they felt the redevelopment was already a done deal and asked why residents hadn’t been more involved in the initial phases of the process.

“They say it’s very preliminary,” Fisher said. “But what about us? We could have been included sooner.”

Lane said, “It just doesn’t seem right that they haven’t involved the people of the community sooner.”

Lane added that she would have preferred to see “meetings with tables of people and plenty of notice ahead of time” for residents to have a say in whether the village should engage with the Bears on the redevelopment.

Village Manager Randy Recklaus said the village hadn’t even reached the first phase of the redevelopment process. The Bears are entitled to make a bid on and purchase the property if they wish, he said.

“We’re going to work with anyone who wants in earnest to build something on that site, but we aren’t going to say yes or anything until we’re sure that it’s going to be a good thing for our community,” Recklaus said.

Brian Costin, the Illinois State Deputy Director of Americans for Prosperity, a libertarian organization that recently proposed an ordinance that would bar Arlington Heights from providing public money as incentives for any business looking to open in the village, also had questions for the board Monday night.

Costin wanted to know about how the proposed residential element of the Bears’ redevelopment plans would impact local schools. He said it was “really concerning” that the village might opt to divert tax revenue from the project into a tax increment financing district that would otherwise go to schools seeing an influx of students from the development.

“All this residential impact that could be happening from this development and no discussion goes to schools as to where the children from this development is going to go,” Costin said.

Recklaus told Costin the village had had preliminary meetings with the school districts that might see an impact from a stadium development.

Recklaus and Hayes both emphasized that the village will exert significant power over any development at the former racecourse.

“The village has quite a bit of say in terms of what will go there ultimately, and how it will be built and how it will impact our community,” the mayor said. “And so we’ve got a long way to go. Please understand that the village has to say yes [in order for there to be a redevelopment at the site].”