Bears' Plans For Arlington Park Could Be Rejected By Board: Mayor

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, IL — Last week during a Committee of the Whole meeting, some members of the Arlington Heights Village Board expressed concerns they have with the Chicago Bears' preliminary concept plan for the former Arlington Park Racecourse. While a pre-development agreement with the team appears to be moving forward to a vote next month, Mayor Thomas Hayes said Monday night it doesn't guarantee the football team will be calling Arlington Heights home in the future.

"The Village has quite a bit of say in terms of what will go there ultimately, and how it will be built, and how it will impact our community," Hayes said during an Arlington Heights Village Board meeting.

A pre-development agreement between the Chicago Bears and the Village could be voted on at the Nov. 7 Village Board meeting. Last week, Village staff said they are working with the Bears to develop the pre-development agreement with the following goals:

• To establish a mutually agreed upon framework and goals for the key discussion topics in the event the project moves forward;
• To provide the CBFC some assurances regarding the Village's intentions and predictability of process so that they can make a purchasing decision later in 2022;
• To spell out certain expectations that the Village has of the CBFC during the process; and
• To provide the public expectations how the discussion will unfold.

During the public comments section of Monday night's meeting, resident Roberta Fisher stated she was under the impression that once the Bears own the property, the transaction would be complete and residents, along with the Village, would have no recourse. She asked Hayes if the Village Board would still be able to reject the Bears' plan.

"It's certainly possible," Hayes said in response, while also characterizing the Nov. 7 vote as part of the preliminary process.

As he has indicated in the past, Hayes anticipates the Bears will close on the property by the end of the calendar year, possibly in early 2023, which he calls Phase 1. Hayes describes Phase 2 as the submittal of formal plans from the Bears.

Resident Peg Lane, who lives three blocks from the Arlington Park property, told the board she is concerned about potential parking issues near her condominium complex on game days. In response, Hayes said it was premature to discuss such issues at this time, though he did reference potential "entrepreneurial" opportunities for businesses and homeowners with regard to parking spaces.

"We've got a preliminary plan. We don't have a lot of detailed plans at this point, so a lot of these questions will be answered down the road, maybe next year, maybe longer than that," said Hayes, who also reiterated the public will have plenty of opportunities to weigh in prior to any and all future votes by the Village Board.

If the deal with the Bears is eventually completed, experts are predicting it will be one of the largest real estate deals in state history. The Bears have still not closed a deal on the 326-acre property, for which they signed a $197.2 million purchase agreement in September 2021.

"It's just a road map," Village Manager Randy Recklaus said of the pre-development agreement. "It's basically a statement of intentions. If they [Bears] buy the property, and if they develop it, how we will talk about it."

Recklaus echoed Hayes in saying that even if the Bears buy the property, the Village can still say no to the plan.

"The zoning on that property is such that the Village has a lot of say-so on what can and can't be built there," Recklaus said.

While representatives from the National Football League team continue to say there are plans to build a new state-of-the art enclosed stadium at Arlington, along with an expansive arts and entertainment district, specifics of what the stadium will look like and how much it will cost remain a mystery.

"I’m all good with the road map, the process, how things will happen, how some things won’t happen, which changes are imminent, [but] I’m going to tell you right now I’m not a fan of the site plan," Trustee Jim Tinaglia said last week.

Tinaglia said his biggest issue with the plan at this time is that he doesn't think Arlington Heights need another large transit-oriented development, as the Village already has a downtown business district, along with a train station.

The Bears have recently said the team will not seek public funding for the stadium, but may need assistance from governmental entities to fund the remainder of the $5 billion project.

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