Mount Prospect, District 57 settle Westbrook zoning dispute

Mount Prospect and Elementary School District 57 have resolved a zoning dispute with an agreement that will allow the district to move forward with plans for infrastructure improvements outside Westbrook School on Central Road.

The village about six months ago denied the district's request to rezone part of the property from a conservation-recreation designation to single-family residential. Village officials at the time said they feared the switch could eventually lead to the loss of open space.

However, district officials said they sought the change to construct a new driveway connection to Central Road, expand and reconfigure the parking lot and improve stormwater detention. The parcel currently holds a playground and ball fields.

On Tuesday, the dispute officially was resolved, with the village board approving an intergovernmental agreement that grants the village the right of first refusal to purchase the open space if the district puts it up for sale in the next 25 years.

The board also approved a zoning variation that will allow District 57 to seek a zoning map amendment to rezone the parcel so that it can be consolidated with six other parcels into one lot of record. The consolidation will allow the school to build on the property without crossing lot lines.

"When we had the first go around on this, this was not done to impinge upon the district's right to use their property," village Trustee Paul Hoefert said. "It was more done in the thought of trying to preserve open space in the village where people can play. We don't have that much open space left."

"That was our concern," Trustee Richard Rogers added. "It was that once you had it zoned (for residential use), you would sell it to a developer and then all of a sudden apartment buildings or whatever would go up on that site and we would lose the open space."

District 57 Superintendent Elaine Aumiller said there are no plans to expand onto the open space. The only conversations about expansion - and very preliminary ones at that - have been about adding full-day kindergarten, she said.

"If we were to do that, we would have to build some additional classrooms onto Westbrook School. So that's the only type of construction that is being plotted out," Aumiller said.