Riverside has finalized its agreement with Riverside School District 96 for a new playground and multi-use court at Blythe Park. The upgrades will be for Blythe Park Elementary students to use. The school district will build the playground, which Riverside will maintain, on village-owned property while Riverside will handle replacing the tennis court with a new court for multiple sports, including both tennis and basketball.
Trustees voted to unanimously approve the agreement at the village board’s March 6 meeting, though Trustee Aberdeen Marsh-Ozga was absent.
“Just to clarify, this agreement is an agreement of intent by both parties,” Village President Doug Pollock told trustees at the meeting. “In the draft [intergovernmental agreement], it talks about repurposing the tennis court as a multi-purpose court, and the school district agrees to replace the playground. Everything, the details of all of that, will come back to you for a vote. You’re not approving the playground. You’re not giving the school district carte blanche to build whatever playground they want. Everything has to come back to the village.”
The agreement specifies that during the course of construction, “all appropriate actions will be taken” to keep existing trees safe, and no trees will be removed from Blythe Park to make room for the new playground or court, which could have a larger footprint than the existing tennis court.
Both Riverside and D96 will work to divide the land at Blythe Park in a way that is “mutually acceptable” due to confusion from both parties on where the village’s land ends at the park and where the school district’s begins. Village Manager Jessica Frances said neither Riverside nor D96 were able to track down property plans or titles for the area while working on the IGA.
Riverside has been considering an agreement with D96 since last year, when trustees approved a different agreement for new paint on the tennis court. While that agreement was moot — the district did not end up painting the tennis court — it sparked communication between D96 and the village about the school’s playground, according to village documents.
Trustees first considered an IGA with D96 in November, but they agreed then to have the parks and recreation board and preservation commission weigh in. They also directed staff to notify residents who live near Blythe Park about the planned changes, which at the time included paving a new basketball court rather than repurposing the tennis court.
Some neighbors, concerned about the impacts on greenspace, mentioned their worries at a parks and recreation board meeting in January. One neighbor, Joe Wise, even started petitions to make the village aware of residents’ disapproval after he learned of the planned changes through the village’s letters.
He said his first petition, which he submitted to the village board in February, had 14 signatures. The total number of signatures rose to about 20-25 with a second petition that included some repeat signatories, he told the Landmark.
“I didn’t want to lose any of the green space,” he said. “I’m glad they’re not going to talk about putting up a separate basketball court. That would take away a lot of green space. I use it for cross-country skiing when the snow sticks and stays there.”
His petitions only represented some residents, Wise said most neighbors he spoke with were against adding a separate basketball court. Only two residents were in favor of it, he said.
“One of the neighbors on Blythe [Road] said, if they put the basketball court in there, they’re going to have to increase policing because, in the summer, that playground turns into a teenage playground,” he said. “Tennis is not that much noise. Tennis and pickleball aren’t that loud, but basketball is an increase in volume.”
Wise said he was glad to learn the village had shifted its focus to a combined court rather than adding new hardscape for a basketball court.
At the village board meeting, trustees found the drafted agreement was a solid compromise.
“I think, as drafted, without amendment, it achieves a lot of goals here, right?” Trustee Megan Claucherty said. “We’re being asked to approve an agreement between two taxing bodies in Riverside, whereby the other taxing body is willing to spend upwards of five times what we’re being asked to spend, to provide a playground in a much-needed location. That’s, plain and simple, what we’re being asked to do tonight. It’s difficult for me to see how we can object to that.”
