Will controversial church plan come up when South Barrington board meets Thursday?

Although it’s not on the agenda, South Barrington Mayor Paula McCombie expects the continued controversy regarding the proposed construction of a church and school in town will surface during the village board’s scheduled meeting Thursday night.

The meeting — set for 7 p.m. at village hall, 30 S. Barrington Road — is the first since the board voted late last month to formally intervene in a lawsuit that aims to stop the project from Fourth Avenue Gospel, a group owned and operated by a suburban congregation of the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church.

In a telephone interview Wednesday, McCombie predicted residents will address the issue during a section of the meeting reserved for public comment.

“We look forward to hearing their input,” she said.

The court fight concerns an undeveloped 34-acre site at Bartlett Road and Route 59 often called Area N. Eight residents — Michael Lombardi, Harathi Srivastava, Jaimin Patel, Jignesh Samani, Leonard Hosette, Madhusree Ghosh, Jonathan Cooke and Neil Shah — filed the complaint in March against the South Barrington Park District, the former owners of the property.

Schaumburg-based Fourth Avenue Gospel purchased the land from the park district in February via an auction for $2.3 million.

Fourth Avenue created a limited liability company called Area N Development to bid on the land and close the purchase. A representative has said the group used that legal entity to avoid publicly identifying itself as the buyer until after the deal was finalized.

That was the second time Fourth Avenue Gospel won an auction for the land. It first did so in May 2023. Voters earlier had approved a park district plan to sell the property through an auction, with proceeds to be used to improve existing parks.

Fourth Avenue was the only bidder at the first auction, offering about $1.7 million for the site. But the park district board canceled the sale before a scheduled real estate closing because of community opposition to how the auction was run as well as concerns about the project and some of the church’s practices.

The second auction was legally improper, the lawsuit claims, because the park district board approved a bid at the first auction in 2023. For a second auction to be held, they allege, the board needed to reject all bids the first time.

Voters should decide if a second auction should be held, the lawsuit claims.

The plaintiffs also allege Area N Development shouldn’t have been allowed to buy the property via the second auction because park district officials didn’t know the buyer’s real identity.

A Cook County judge could decide earlier in the day whether the village should be allowed to intervene in the lawsuit. Intervening would allow the village to protect its rights and to stay informed as the case progresses; it would not become a plaintiff.

Judge Allen P. Walker is set to consider the case at 3 p.m. Thursday at the Daley Center in Chicago.

To build a church and school, Fourth Avenue needs the village board to amend a development plan for the land. Before the board can take any action on the proposal, it must first be reviewed by the village’s plan commission.

That commission is scheduled to meet at 7 p.m. Friday at village hall to hold public hearings on Fourth Avenue’s plan and other matters.

Municipal government meetings on Friday nights are rare; this one was scheduled on that day and time because Saturday is the legal deadline to hold a public hearing on the matter, an attorney for the village said.

No decision on the redevelopment plan should be made until the legal ownership of the property is determined in court, McCombie said.