St. James gets six months to redo parkways

St. James Catholic Church doesn't have the $50,000 to redo parkways near its church but will some how pull it off in the six months the Arlington Heights Village Board allowed the parish Monday night, the Rev. William Zavaski said.

If congregants do not come forward with the money, the parish will borrow it from the Archdiocese of Chicago, the church's pastor said.

The issue is replacing asphalt parkways with sod and trees along Frederick Street and Pine Avenue around a parking lot near the church at 820 N. Arlington Heights Road.

Neighbors, including at least one parishioner, say it is dangerous that cars drive out of the lot over the curb rather than going to the exit. Zavaski said there has not been an accident in 42 years, and the church will lose 60 parking places with the improvements.

The parish serves 4,000 families and 15,000 people and needs a new or expanded church so badly that it holds masses in the gymnasium, but the school addition had to be built on the west side of Arlington Heights Road first because when classrooms were on the east side no room was available for church expansion.

The parish still owes $1.8 million from the 2007 school project and is $125,000 under operating budget receipts expected this year, the pastor said. When the school project was approved by the village, authorities required the parish to agree to bring the parkways by the church into compliance, he said.

Although village staff can find no records, Zavaski said the village paved at least one of the parkways. The village had earlier agreed to pay for four trees on Frederick and expects the parish to pay for six required on Pine.

The deadline for compliance was March 5, and the parish requested a three-year extension. On the advice of staff and the Plan Commission, the village board granted the church six months instead.

Zavaski said the parish's 40-year plan after a 1997 study was to eventually redo the entire campus east of Arlington Heights Road with a new or expanded church, but the bad economy is delaying that.

“We have resigned ourselves to keep this commitment (on the landscaping),” the pastor said. “Some people want me to fight this, but I want to finish this.”