'Basic Planning Failure' For Lyons Township High South Campus Construction

LA GRANGE, IL – Western Springs resident Tommy Greco, who lives next door to Lyons Township High School's South Campus, criticized the school's handling of a construction project Monday.

He was speaking about the building of a shot put and discus area near his home.

Last April, Western Springs issued a stop-work order to the school. That followed the school apparently continuing work after the village notified officials that they needed a permit.

The current shot put and discus area was taken up by a softball field that the school had just built.

Greco said he found no indication that the school figured out ahead of time a place for shot put and discus once the field was built.

"That is a basic planning failure," Greco said at a school board meeting. "You don't approve a project that displaces existing athletic infrastructure without knowing where the infrastructure will land."

He said the village strongly encouraged the school to meet with neighbors about the project, but he said that hasn't happened.

School officials did not respond to Greco's comments, following their meeting policy.

In April, Greco and a neighbor spoke to the board about the unpermitted construction.

Patch later obtained records indicating that the board may have been in the dark before the residents spoke, while the administration was in the know for weeks.

Board members have stayed largely silent ever since – at least publicly.

In response to a Patch inquiry in May, the board's president, Tim Albores, expressed confidence in the administration on the project. But he did not shed light on when the administration informed the board of the village's objections. The administration's first written communication to the board was a day after the residents spoke about it.

In June, the administration submitted a new construction plan for the village's approval. The Plan Commission is set to take it up during a meeting at 7 p.m. Thursday at Village Hall.

The plan did not go before the school board.