Burr Ridge Entity Signed Non-Disclosure Pact With Business

BURR RIDGE, IL – Burr Ridge officials last year kept the public out of the loop about a proposed development that included a Costco.

And the Burr Ridge Park District board talked about the development in a closed meeting, which the attorney general later determined should have been open.

There may be a reason for the secrecy – a non-disclosure agreement with the property owner, CNH Industrial.

In an interview Friday morning, the district's director, Jim Pacanowski, said that he signed a non-disclosure agreement with property owner CNH Industrial, which is planning to sell its local land to developer Bridge Industrial.

He mentioned the agreement while answering questions about the park board's July 2023 closed session.

Asked whether the pact was the reason for closing the meeting, Pacanowski said, "I would say no. We knew we had (the agreement)."

On Friday, Patch filed public records requests with the park district and the village for non-disclosure agreements. An emailed message left with village officials was not immediately returned.

A review of the park board's agendas for the six months before the closed meeting showed that members did not vote on a non-disclosure agreement.

It's unclear how often government entities enter non-disclosure pacts. The agreements themselves are subject to the Freedom of Information Act.

When government bodies approve settlements, they sometimes include confidentiality provisions, which note that they are subject to the Freedom of Information law.

Bridge Industrial's plan was such a secret that Village Administrator Evan Walter told Patch a year ago that he was unaware of the possibility of a Costco coming to town.

Yet he had been emailing for months about the proposed Costco, even telling its representative that a Costco was a must in the development.

The village later blamed a park board member for leaking the development's concept to neighbors, who were upset about being left out of the loop. In early August, as a result of the frustration, the village revealed to the public what was going on.

Last month, Bridge Industrial submitted its application to the village for the development. It does not include a Costco.

Editor's note: The original version of the story said the park district's nondisclosure agreement was with developer Bridge Industrial. It was actually with CNH Industrial, which is planning to sell its property to Bridge.