Although a plan for a Downers Grove outdoor pool and a recreation center has the support of the Park Board and is headed for possible approval by the Village Council, some residents want to let voters decide whether the project should sink or swim.
Pool opponents have kicked off a drive to hold an advisory referendum in March, asking voters whether they want the Park District to proceed with the $15 million project on about 8.5 acres along Belmont Road near Grant Street.
The Park Board unanimously approved the plan in September. Since then, Williams Associates Architects Ltd. has been hired for design work and the Park Board is preparing to seek long-term loans, Park District Administrator Dan Cermak said last week.
In the next three to five months, the proposal is expected to move to the village’s Zoning Board of Appeals and the Village Council for final consideration.
But some residents argue that the community’s views have not fully been heard.
“The community should have a chance to vote on it. Quite a few people feel there hasn’t been the citizen input that there should be,” said Janis S. Sleeter, an organizer of a group of residents circulating petitions for the referendum. “There hasn’t been enough information given out to the residents to be able to make an educated decision yet.”
For the non-binding referendum to appear on the ballot, the group needs 10 percent of the 29,083 registered Park District voters to sign a petition, according to Jim Tamm, assistant executive director of the DuPage County Election Commission. The petitions would need to be certified by the secretary of the Park Board by Jan. 3.
But by the time of the election, Cermak said, the Park Board “will be very far along in this process.”
Cermak said the plan already has gone through a public hearing process before the Park Board. He said the Park Board, before approving the proposal, conducted five public meetings on the plan, which were well-attended by residents. Also, the proposal will go through another public hearing process once it is presented to the Zoning Board of Appeals.
Sleeter argued that only two of those meetings allowed for public input, and residents were limited to speaking for only a few minutes.
Cermak referred to two surveys conducted in 1998 as an indication of the community’s support of such a project. A Park District survey sent to about 3,500 residents with about a 14 percent return concluded in April 1998 that a recreation center and a public pool were two out of roughly 40 amenities that respondents felt the Park District needed.
“The community and the survey have told us that they want it,” Cermak said. “Downers Grove is a leading community in the state and we don’t have any public outdoor pools.”
Sleeter acknowledged that the survey results indicated a pool and recreation center might be amenities included on the “wish lists” of residents, but she said a referendum would ask specifically about the proposed location and $15 million price tag.
Opponents say the facilities would raise the noise level at the nearby residential area, increase traffic, likely cause flooding problems at the neighboring golf course and would cause property values to plummet.
Some residents also have voiced concerns over the safety of children trying to cross Belmont near Ogden Avenue to get to the facilities.
Preliminary plans call for a six-lane, 25-yard lap pool with a deep end, a children’s pool, drop slides, a lazy river and a sand play area.
The 70,000-square-foot recreation center likely would feature several gyms, a gymnastics area, a fitness center, a walking and jogging track, aerobics rooms and child-care areas.
Cermak said the recreation center would replace the former Washington School building, which the Park District owns as its only gymnasium. The building at Washington Street and Prairie Avenue would be razed and converted into a park.
Lincoln Center, 935 Maple Ave., a former school, would continue to house the Park District’s more passive programs.
