Korean church, open space clash in Hoffman Estates

Standing in the dappled shade of a maple tree as she watches the summer sun dance across the green grass of Hoffman Park, longtime Hoffman Estates resident Maureen Donehey has a song in her heart. And it scares her.

“It's just like that Joni Mitchell song,” Donehey says, paraphrasing the lyrics. “You're paving my paradise and putting up a parking lot.”

The maple tree, a park bench donated by an Eagle Scout in memory of Sept. 11 and a collection of neighbors such as Donehey stand at one end of the small park on the corner of Glendale Lane and Illinois Boulevard. At the other end sits a modest modern play structure next to the Alliance Fellowship Church, a growing Christian church at 665 Grand Canyon St. that caters to the Korean community and has been part of this neighborhood since 1984.In the middle lies Hoffman Park and open space, which occupies 2.05 acres and is small enough to fit inside a typical suburban Walmart. The church has filed a request to lease 57,500 square feet of the park's 89,289 square feet to build a new parking lot, says Dean Bostrom, executive director of the Hoffman Estates Park District. Use of a narrow strip of land behind the former village hall that now separates The Children's Advocacy Center from the church's existing parking lot also is part of the church's proposal.When the quest to preserve open space runs headlong into the needs of a religious group, and you throw in various governmental bodies and people speaking different languages, you often end up with one of those complicated and ferocious suburban battles with enough ugliness and misery to keep lawyers and newspaper reporters busy for years. This isn't one of those stories.Under the direction of pastor Jason Kim, the 700-seat Alliance Fellowship Church has outgrown its two existing parking lots. According to documents filed with the village, the church has 150 parking spaces now, but generally draws 257 cars to a busy service and would like 304 spaces, says Peter Gugliotta, director of planning for Hoffman Estates.#8220;On Sundays, we are using the street parking and other places,#8221; says Jae Hong, a church member involved in the plan to lease Hoffman Park for a parking lot. #8220;It's very inconvenient for us.#8221;The neighbors' opposition to the parking lot has nothing to do with their feelings about the church, Donehey says.#8220;The church has been wonderful neighbors,#8221; agrees neighbor Donna Batchen, telling how the church has given boxes of candies or small decorative plates to neighbors at Christmas as a thank-you for tolerating all the street parking.But Hoffman Park is a beloved institution.#8220;It's always been green space,#8221; says Batchen, 55, who lives with her 87-year-old mother, Viola, in the home that was built for their family in 1958. Batchen went to grade school in the same building the church now occupies. She spent her recess playtimes frolicking on that ground, and now takes her three grandkids to the park when they visit.#8220;I walk there almost every day or ride my bike there,#8221; Batchen says.Hoffman Park is different from most parks, such as Chino Park a block away. It features no baseball diamond, no soccer field, no organized games or scheduled activities of any kind.#8220;It's like the real old-fashioned park. This is the only spot where we don't have supervised, adult-driven activities,#8221; says Donehey, a high school Spanish teacher who moved into the home across the street more than 25 years ago with her husband, Dennis Nykiel. Their son, Jack, who has Asperger syndrome, benefitted from growing up able to enjoy the space of Hoffman Park without having to join a team, she says. She says the park remains a sanctuary. People jog, toss around a Frisbee or football, play softball or tag, organize the annual post-Thanksgiving football game and build snow forts for snowball fights. Donehey sees the value in having a place where teens hold hands for the first time, toddlers touch grass for the first time, and others can spin around and gaze at clouds, fly kites, run barefoot or escape when they want to be alone with their thoughts.The park was #8220;definitely part of the decision of buying this house,#8221; says Joseph Lucero, who, with his wife, Darla, moved into their home across from the park in 2000. Now their three young daughters, Abigail, 10, and 8-year-old twins, Rachel and Sophia, are park regulars.#8220;We've gone kite-flying and just gone over there to run around, just regular play,#8221; Lucero says. #8220;They just like to get out and exercise a little bit.#8221;Neighbors rallying to save Hoffman Park say they would much rather put up with parked cars lining the street one day of the week than six days of an empty parking lot reminding them of the green space they lost.The church also has plans to build a second-story addition for more religious school classrooms, but that doesn't affect their parking needs, planning director Gugliotta says. For the church's busy Sunday services, cars line the nearby public streets and sometimes spill over into the parking lots at St. Hubert Catholic Church next door.#8220;We don't say anything about it because we're both Christian churches,#8221; says Rev. Robert Rizzo, pastor at St. Hubert's, which is celebrating its 50th year in the community and sometimes draws crowds that pack its parking lot. For special events, the Korean church asks for, and is granted, permission to use St. Hubert's lot, but a new parking lot would alleviate any parking concerns, Rizzo says.Neighbors have suggested car pools or shuttling churchgoers from a parking lot of a business that is closed on Sundays, but those options are difficult for a church in a car-dependent suburb that draws members from the city and suburbs, and includes worshippers who have difficulty walking.After a hearing earlier this month, during which some neighbors spoke in opposition to the parking lot, the village planning and zoning commission voted 8-3 against recommending the plan to the village board. The village board has the final say, and the village and the park district also would have to work out lease agreements with the church before a parking lot could be approved. The earliest the project could come up for discussion is the Sept. 12 village board meeting.But all sides show a willingness to work together.#8220;I know the church members were very discouraged after the vote but I think we can come up with a plan that will minimally impact the green space they want to preserve,#8221; says Kwang Kim of Kwang Kim Architects in Chicago. Kim, who says more communication with the neighbors was needed before the first plan was introduced, says he now is looking into refiguring the church's existing parking lots, inquiring about space in the lot for the Children's Advocacy Center, and coming up with modifications and attractive landscaping that will help the church satisfy park and village officials, and, most importantly, meet the open-space concerns of the park-loving neighbors.#8220;Their intent is to make the residents fully happy with any agreement we can come up with,#8221; Kim says of the church leaders. #8220;That's their number one concern.#8221;Sales40002464Having visited Hoffman Park many times during his 25 years growing up across the street, Jack Donehey-Nykiel hugs his mother, Maureen Donehey, as neighbors in Hoffman Estates come together to protest paving most of the grass for a local churchÂ’s parking lot.Mark Welsh/mwelsh@dailyherald.comSalesSales40002117While praising the Alliance Fellowship Church as a wonderful neighbor, residents in Hoffman Estates are rallying against its plan to turn most of their neighborhood Hoffman Park into a parking lot.Mark Welsh/mwelsh@dailyherald.comSales