By Russell Lissau | Daily Herald
The South Barrington Park District’s 2024 auction of land that subsequently was sold to a religious group was improper, a Cook County judge has opined.
Judge Allen P. Walker’s decision doesn’t undo the sale of the 34 acres near Bartlett Road and Route 59 — property sometimes called “Area N” — to Schaumburg-based Fourth Avenue Gospel, nor does it halt that group’s plan to build a church and school there. Fourth Avenue is owned and operated by a congregation of the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church.
A lawsuit trying to cancel the sale and stop the project hasn’t been resolved either.
Park District Executive Director Jay Morgan declined to comment, saying the park board hasn’t had an opportunity to review the ruling. A Fourth Avenue representative couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.
Park district residents voted to allow the undeveloped property to be sold at auction in 2023. Fourth Avenue Gospel was the only bidder and offered about $1.7 million for the property.
But the park district board terminated the anticipated sale because of community opposition.
Article continues here.
Here’s the timeline every resident should know. In 2023, voters directed the Park District to sell Area N, with the money meant to improve our parks. The only bidder offered $1.7M. After residents packed the room in opposition, the board voted 4-0 to cancel that sale.
Then it happened anyway through a side door. At a second auction in February 2024, the winning bidder was “Area N Development LLC,” a company registered in Delaware just ONE week earlier. Only after closing did we learn that LLC was created by the very same group whose first deal had just been rejected.
Our own Park District director said he found out who the buyer really was by reading the newspaper.
This is not over, and it’s not abstract. Two things are being decided right now
1. Zoning variations are still pending at Village Hall a decision our elected officials control today!!!
2. There’s an active effort to disconnect this land into Cook County, which would strip South Barrington of any say over what gets built here. We should oppose that outright!!!
This was never just about one parcel. It’s about whether a community vote means anything, whether public land can be bought through an anonymous shell company, and whether the people who live here have a voice. A court has now said the process was flawed.
Our officials should act like it!!!
If you care about the character and value of this village, contact the Village Board and Park District before the next meeting. Ask them to
(1) suspend zoning approvals while the lawsuit is pending, and (2) reject disconnection. Silence is how this got this far.
Contacts: Mayor Paula McCombie (pmccombie@southbarrington.org)
Village Hall (villagehall@southbarrington.org, 847-381-7510)
Park board president is Pete Perisin (pperisin@sbpd.net)
(847) 381-2570 and director is Jay Morgan; village attorney is James Vasselli
Let’s talk about what’s actually happening on the ground not just what’s in the court filings…
This land sits in the middle of a residential community. Five-acre, two-acre, one-acre single-family lots the zoning every one of us bought into. A church and school don’t fit that, which is exactly why this project needs zoning variations the Village hasn’t granted. The use doesn’t match the land. Period!
But here’s what should stop every homeowner reading this: they’re not waiting for approval.
For months now I’ve watched it from the road equipment working the site, vehicles parked and stored, shipping containers, tarp tents pitched on the property. No approved plan. No zoning sign-off. Just there, like the outcome’s already a done deal.
So ask yourself: if you left a single trailer, RV, or container sitting on your lot too long, how fast would the Village notice show up in your mailbox? We all know the answer. So why is it rules for thee, but not for me?
That’s the part that should unite us no matter where you stand on the project.
Either the code applies to everyone in this village, or it applies to no one. A judge has already ruled the auction that handed over this public land was improper. And now, before a single approval is granted, the site’s being staged like the decision’s been made for us.
This is your neighborhood. Your property values. Your zoning. Your voice…if you use it.
The zoning variations are pending at Village Hall right now, and there’s an active push to disconnect this land into Cook County so the Village loses all say over it.
Email the Village Board and the Park District. Tell them plainly: enforce the code the way you would on any one of us, pause approvals until the lawsuit is resolved, and reject disconnection.
Silence is how this got this far. Don’t give them yours please..