Nixed For Now: Lyons Township High Gets No Land Swap

BURR RIDGE, IL – A Burr Ridge-based park district has rejected, for the time being, Lyons Township High School's plea for talks about a land swap.

Such a trade is believed to make the school's land in Willow Springs more attractive to developers.

The school board has tried to improve badly damaged relations with Burr Ridge-based Pleasant Dale Park District and other public bodies.

The relationships were scarred after the board plotted for much of 2022 and early 2023 behind closed doors to sell the school's 70 acres to an industrial developer. Members wanted to keep the plan a secret for as long as possible.

On Wednesday, Patch obtained recent letters between the park district and the high school through a public records request with the district.

In a June 10 letter, Tim Albores, the school board's president, asked for discussions on a land swap. He said district officials indicated they were interested in such a move during informal talks more than a year ago.

The park district owns a 7-acre parcel along Willow Springs Road that juts out into the school's more than 70 acres. School officials hope to swap the land with other acres to make the school's property more rectangular.

He noted the park district proposed the same concept in October 2022. The school board, Albores said, decided against pursuing the idea. (That discussion occurred in closed session.)

Albores gave the park district until Aug. 30 for an answer in writing.

One day before the deadline, Todd Davis, the park board's president, said in a letter that his board would not talk about a land swap for now.

"The Park District believes it is premature to discuss a land swap and/or similar transaction until greater clarity is gained on your sale process, potential buyer and price," Davis said.

When the district gets more information, he said, it would welcome a conversation.

Davis reminded Albores that the park district proposed a land swap before it knew the school was considering selling its property.

"The Park District made previous requests to discuss a broader use for our collective parcels that were not met with a response," Davis said.

In 2023 and 2024, the attorney general's office found that the high school broke the state's open meetings law by closing its doors during the discussions.

The recordings have since been released. They showed the school board strategized to keep its plan to sell secret for as long as possible from the park district, the village of Willow Springs and Pleasantdale School District 107, which has an elementary school next to the land.

The public bodies and residents protested once the plan became known in January 2023.

During a closed session at the time, Superintendent Brian Waterman, who pushed secrecy for months, acknowledged, "The relationship with all three entities is napalmed."

In January 2023, Matt Russian, the park district's executive director, told Patch that his board contacted the high school about a potential land swap. He was told the school board wasn't interested.

At a school board meeting in February 2023, Village President Melissa Neddermeyer called for Waterman's ouster. She and other officials opposed an industrial development next to houses and an elementary school.

Albores was elected in April 2023, so he did not participate in the closed meetings in question. Only two of the board's seven members – Kari Dillon and Jill Beda Daniels – remain.