A District 200 ad hoc school board committee has recommended building Oak Park and River Forest High School’s new pool facility on a portion of the Varsity baseball field next to the football stadium.
The committee’s recommendation, along with updated design plans for the three sites under consideration, was presented Tuesday at a special D200 school board meeting. The committee, which includes administrators and school board members, chose the baseball field over building on the land currently occupied by the parking garage on Lake Street. The committee also opted against building on Scoville Avenue between Lake Street and the viaduct next to Ridgeland Park.
About 50 people attended the special D200 meeting, which included a presentation of the updated plans by Legat Architects, the school’s consulting firm.
The roughly $35 million facility that was selected includes an Olympic-sized pool, a design option strongly supported by the school’s swimming community. The two-story, 50,000 square-foot structure includes upper-level bleacher seating and lockers rooms on the first floor. A connecting pedestrian bridge from the structure to OPRF’s main building is also part of the facility.
The baseball field site had two design options proposed by Legat. The parking garage site also had two design options. These four options, along with one for the Scoville site, all ranged between $34-$38 million. None of the designs included placing tennis courts on the roofs of the pool facility, which was in earlier drafts’ plans.
The seven-member school board did not select a final site but is scheduled to do that at its regular meeting next week on Aug. 28.
Some members expressed their own preference for where to build. Sharon Patchak-Layman and Jackie Moore leaned more toward building on the parking garage site, saying that site would cause less disruption to students and the school’s athletic programs. Patchak-Layman also noted that the parking garage, with its 300 vehicle spaces mostly used by OPRF faculty, has been under-utilized since its construction in 2003.
The recommended site’s  two-year construction phase would displace the school’s baseball teams to an off-campus location, as well as force outside groups that use the field to find an alternative location during that period.
John Phelan, the board’s president, preferred building on the baseball field but acknowledged the difficulty that placed on the groups currently using the field. The board also did not narrow down a specific price to build any structure. Phelan said that discussion will come after a final site is chosen.
At Tuesday’s special meeting, 19 people spoke during public comments. Supporters of the varsity teams and outside youth baseball programs opposed building on the baseball field. Some supported building on the parking garage site, saying that underground parking could be an option for that site. Mostly all of the speakers, some of whom are OPRF neighbors, acknowledged that a new swimming pool is needed at the high school.  Â
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