Expectation of Large Crowd Leads to Relocation of Village Board Meeting

Tinley Park officials have moved Tuesday's Village Board meeting to a bigger space, in hopes of better accommodating what he says has been a consistently larger crowd in recent meetings.

The Tuesday, March 1 meeting will be held at the South Exhibit Hall at the Tinley Park Convention Center, 18451 Convention Center Drive. The meeting starts at 8 p.m.

"We’re not positive we need to, but over the last few weeks, the size of the crowd attending our meetings has been much greater than our capacity here at the Village Hall," Tinley Park Village Clerk Pat Rea told Patch.

On the agenda is an agreement between the Village of Tinley Park and Winston and Strawn LLP, for legal services pertaining to the process behind The Reserve, a 47-unit apartment building planned for the northeast corner of Oak Park Avenue and 183rd Street. Hundreds of residents flooded Village Hall for a meeting earlier this month, all eager for their chance to reprimand the board for its lack of transparency about the project. Many were packed into conference rooms, watching the meeting remotely due to lack of space in the board room. The community's intense criticism led to concern among trustees, and the suspension of Planning Director Amy Connolly.

Also on the agenda that evening is the appointment of a new Public Works Director, as well as personnel and litigation issues to be discussed in executive session, Rea said. The meeting will also offer a more open "town hall" format, where residents can ask questions and offer feedback, Rea said.

"We hope it can go back to the regular [crowd], that the last 40 years have been able to hold," Rea said.

Find the agenda online, in advance of the meeting.

Rea is also exploring options such as space at area high schools or middle schools, though those don't provide adequate parking.