Plans Approved for New Bleachers at Crystal Lake South

It’s been a long, hard battle.

But, finally on Tuesday, it appeared that both District 155 officials and city officials had come to an understanding, and an agreement, in regards to the bleachers at Crystal Lake South, the Chicago Tribune reports. Plans for a smaller set of bleachers was approved during a city council meeting Tuesday night.

“Our community is in a good place,” Mayor Aaron Shepley said. “It’s been long coming. ... I won’t rehash the past. ... It would have been nice not to go through it.”

The city council did deny a request from District 155 to waive around $3,500 in fees with Shepley stating that the cost “should be spread across the school district’s boundaries, not just Crystal Lake,” the Northwest Herald reports.

District 155 school officials for years had been receiving heat from the city and those living in the neighborhoods surrounding the high school after it installed a massive set of bleachers in 2013 without the city’s approval. The bleachers, which stood 48 feet tall, angered homeowners on Amberwood Drive who said they were never given the chance to air their opinions on the bleachers before they were built.

The Illinois Supreme Court in September sided with the city and said the bleacher’s should have never been built without the city’s approval. District 155 paid $1.5 million to build the bleachers and then, in 2015 shelled out $250,000, to tear them down, according to the Chicago Tribune.

The new east side bleachers, which will be the home bleachers, will be 192 feet wide with 22 rows and the new west side bleachers 192 feet wide with nine rows. A press box would be added to the east side bleachers. The new bleachers will seat 3,261 people, according to the city of Crystal Lake agenda packet.

The total height of the new east side bleachers would be 21 feet nine inches tall while the new west side bleachers (with the addition of the press box) would be 42 feet 3 inches tall.

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