Mental Health Center Project May Stall With New Legislative Move

TINLEY PARK, IL — A local legislator is renewing a call for the state to take responsibility for an environmental assessment of the former Tinley Park Mental Health Center site, an unexpected move in the village’s ambitious plans to redevelop the grounds. The move may slow the process, but because it is designed to shift costs to the state, the project could become cheaper for the village in the end.

Illinois State Sen. Michael Hastings, of Tinley Park, filed two resolutions Tuesday about the site. One urges Gov. JB Pritzker and the director of the Department of Central Management Services to conduct and pay for an environmental study of the grounds. The other urges them to seek three independent appraisals, which are required by state law.

“I live in Tinley, and I don’t think as taxpayer myself that any taxpayer should bear the cost of environmental clean-up,” Hastings said in an interview Tuesday night. “It’s the state’s fault.”

How fast the state will respond is not yet clear.

Tinley Park does not yet own the 280-acre property, and one of the requirements before it purchases the land from the state is to conduct an updated environmental assessment. The last one was completed in 2014, and the surveys must be renewed every five years. In 2014, an environmental evaluation report showed that the area contained contaminated soil and leaking underground storage tanks filled with gasoline and chemical drums. The area would need remediation, the report showed, and estimates put the cost of clean-up at about $12 million. At the time, the village nearly paid $4.16 million for the property, but backed away from that purchase.

However, village officials continued plans to redevelop the area, and on Tuesday, it scheduled a vote to hire a contractor to do an updated assessment. The board would use the firm's report in part to estimate clean-up costs and to develop a sale price.

But the board agreed to postpone that vote “indefinitely” during its regularly scheduled meeting because, officials said, they had learned about the Hastings resolutions only hours before.

“There is a lot more we need to learn about this,” Mayor Jacob Vandenberg said at the meeting.

Vandenberg later said that the village would "continue to aggressively pursue" its redevelopment plans while officials awaited word from the state and examined what the move means for the future of the project. If the state does not pay for the survey, the village would, he said. But no timetable can yet be determined and next steps were not clear.

Hastings, who did not attend the board meeting, also said he planned to file “shell bills” that would require the state to clean up the property or to issue tax credits for the developer to do it, and to hold the developer accountable for proper clean up. Shell bills act as placeholders for future legislation and are written with few words or words that can be changed later to give the bill more clout. They are used to get around rules that require three readings of a bill before a vote.

“There are environmental hazards there and they need to be cleaned up,” he said.

Hastings said that he filed the resolutions now because the administrations of governors Pat Quinn and Bruce Rauner were not receptive to the idea of taking responsibility for the site. So far, Pritzker’s office has been, he said. Plus, Hastings added, “I love Tinley and I want nothing but success for it.”

Tinley officials are negotiating with Melody Square LLC to build a largely age-restricted community on the site. Under the proposal, Melody Square would build 435 single-family homes targeted for buyers ages 55 and older, as well as about 200 luxury senior apartments on the 280-acre site. Another 100 apartments, 60 single-family homes, and recreation and public green space is planned for the site. The agreement to negotiate exclusively with Melody Square expires in July.

It is not yet clear how a delayed environmental survey will affect that negotiation.

Photo via Patch archives.