'Unintended Consequences' In Western Springs: Official

WESTERN SPRINGS, IL – This year's violation of the zoning code was a bit of a rerun for the Western Springs Little League.

Two years ago, the league put up a sign at a ball field at Spring Rock Park without a permit, officials said. The village later approved the sign, which is called the Champions Wall.

The sign, which includes ads, was only to face the ball field.

This year, however, the league posted ads on the back side – again, without a permit.

At a Village Board meeting last month, a league official said the group needed the sign for fundraising to keep players' fees where they are.

However, at Monday's board meeting, the village's attorney, Michael Jurusk, said the board could not factor in the fundraising argument.

"That's not an appropriate consideration for you to decide," he said. "If there's a simple axiom, you can't buy zoning. That's Illinois law."

Trustee Karen Martin said the sign should have been taken down after the violation two years ago. The developer, she said, was never admonished or fined.

"No one entity gets to dominate the public visual space," she said. "We're getting the unintended consequences of what we did in the past."

Trustee Nicole Chen had a similar view.

"The beauty of going to a park is that I paid for it. Those are my tax dollars, and I also get to enjoy it," Chen said. "It's not to be sold to the highest bidder."

Village President Heidi Rudolph said other nonprofits, such as the pool and theater, might want their own fundraising signage if the board keeps approving the Little League's requests.

Trustee Al Fink said he was for the latest sign request.

"The sign is already up, and we're already making good use of our space," he said.

The trustees voted unanimously to send the issue back to the Plan Commission, which approved the request. They asked the commission to look at creating a comprehensive sign plan for the parks and doing an inventory of the current signage.

Spring Rock Park is part of the Western Springs Park District.