Facts on Cosley Zoo parking lot plans

With regards to John Patterson’s and Michael Gresk’s previous letters to the editor, I feel obliged to present the most recent information about the need for an additional parking lot for Cosley Zoo.

The Wheaton Park District is seeking to rezone a residential lot to allow a 93-space parking lot that would adjoin homes in Pioneer Terrace as close to 30 feet to this parcel.

The park district’s premise is the need for additional parking due to the claim that the existing spaces are often full and the “zoo personnel walk the lot each day and make an observation full or not full.” Michael Gresk points out that at the March 12 meeting the “no data” claim was clearly rebutted by a park district expert witness.

Objectors to the parking lot requested the data through the FOIA with no documents being produced. On May 14, at the zoning board meeting, two attorneys opposing the parking lot each questioned the park district attorney about the fact that these records do not exist. The Wheaton Park District attorney withdrew the claim that the parking lot is full often.

Objectors to the parking lot have been gathering daily counts of the parking lot since Dec. 20, 2023. There have been no days that the lots have been full since these counts began.

A property valuation report is required to determine if the property values of the adjoining properties would suffer a loss in value after that parking lot is built. Not one appropriate example was included of instances of values after a parking lot is built close to homes. The examples were of home values near existing parking lots which has no relevance here. There was no proof that the value of adjoining homes in Pioneer Terrace would not suffer reduced property values.

Joan Wegrzyn

Wheaton