Lisle approves Benet Academy stadium plan

Benet Academy has received permission from the village of Lisle to pursue a two-phase plan to upgrade Baumgartner-Gilbert Stadium.

Lisle Village Board members voted unanimously on Monday to approve the private high school’s proposal to improve its outdoor athletic facilities.

As part of the first phase of the project, Benet will construct a 1,400-seat grandstand, a set of bleachers for 300 visitors, a press box, a turf football field, new track and field facilities, stadium lighting, and two scoreboards, including a video scoreboard. New parking and two storage buildings will also be added.

The second phase will include the installation of a synthetic field for soccer and lacrosse. A covered pavilion and a multipurpose building with concessions and restrooms will also be constructed.

“I’m very happy with the results tonight,” Benet Academy President Bill Myers said Monday night after the village board decision.

The project was opposed by some residents in the neighboring Oak Hill South and Oak Hill subdivisions, including those whose property line will be within 100 feet of the grandstand. The residents were mainly concerned about light and noise.

“Lights and noise will affect our daily lives, our homes and our families, and the current conditions simply do not do enough to protect us,” resident Lorraine Krzywosz said Monday.

Phillip Luetkehans, the attorney representing the neighbors, said, “The problem here is the project does not work in this particular location for night games.”

Benet officials said the stadium lights would only be used 54 days a year. In addition, they would be dimmed at 10 p.m. during football games and shut off by 10:30 p.m. That would happen an hour earlier during other sporting events and activities.

Caitlin Csuk, the school’s attorney, said that sound levels during football games, including crowd and band noise, may reach around 83 decibels at the property line. That level is similar to a lawnmower or vacuum cleaner, she said.

As part of a set of 45 conditions, the school has agreed to provide sound and light measurement data to the village. That information will be made available to the public.

Before Monday’s decision, resident Katherine Morin asked the village board to take two separate votes — one for a design change to the Benet Planned Urban Development and a second on the special-use permit for lights.

Morin said a non-lighted stadium would give Benet “the opportunity to prove that they can meet the sound limits before extending them late into the evening.”

“This also gives the residents comfort that the village can enforce the conditions,” she added.

The proposal was reviewed by the village board after Lisle’s Planning and Zoning Commission voted 6 to 1 in November to recommend approval.

Before the commission’s vote, Benet made multiple modifications to the proposal.

“I do think it was a thorough process with the village, and the neighbors gave us feedback,” Myers said. “We listened to that feedback. We tried to accommodate as much as we could.”

Village trustees say they are satisfied with the changes the school made.

“I do think that we have tried to balance private property owners' rights both with the neighbors ... as well as with Benet Academy,” Trustee Michael Olson said. “It's extremely difficult.”

Trustee Thomas Duffy said he feels comfortable with the conditions that have been placed on the project.

“Extracurriculars are part of an educational mission,” Duffy said. “Whether that is a drama club to a sports team, they are part of the broader educational mission that round our kids' abilities.”

Benet Academy sought to improve its athletic facilities because they have been essentially unchanged since 1961.

The school has not played a football game at Baumgartner-Gilbert Stadium since 2004. Since that time, its home games have been at Benedictine University, which is located across Maple Avenue to the south of the high school’s campus. Other Redwings sports teams have also needed to find alternative hosting sites.

Myers said he hopes construction will start this summer. The goal is to complete the first phase by the summer of 2027.

“We’re very excited about the future,” he said. “It’s good for the school. It’s good for the village of Lisle.”