The wait for what’s next in the debate over the future of Oak Park’s Village Hall will soon be over.
After a scheduled March 18 meeting to review architect JLK’s proposals for Oak Park’s long-discussed Village Hall renovation and police station construction project was delayed, board members and village staff have agreed on a new date for the meeting. The discussion is set for Wednesday, April 30, with the JLK proposal and other meeting documents expected to be made available to the public the Friday before through the Oak Park village website.
The board will consider multiple proposals for the historic project and hear estimates on its projected cost and tax impact.
The original meeting had been delayed because JLK didn’t submit its proposal in time to allow village staff to bring estimates for the March 18 board meeting, said Village President Vicki Scaman.
“It was a very tight timeline for them to meet,” she said. “While it’s not ideal that it is after the election, it is most fair that this goes before the seven people who’ve been on the board discussing it.”
Trustees will cast their votes on next steps in the project in what is now a lame duck session, as April 1’s municipal election ended with current trustees Ravi Parakkat and Lucia Robinson losing their seats. Parakkat had unsuccessfully challenged incumbent Scaman for her seat, while newcomer Jenna Leving Jacobson and Jim Taglia, who earned a place back on the board after losing his reelection bid in 2023, overtook Robinson in the trustee election.
A meeting set for May 6 will honor Parakkat and Robinson’s time on the board and welcome Leving Jacobson and Taglia, with regular board business set to resume at May 13’s meeting. Scaman said she will look to speak with Taglia and Leving Jacobson ahead of April 30 so she can have a sense of their perspectives on the project before the special session discussion.
The proposals will certainly contain design concepts for a new police station, which is set to be constructed on the village-owned greenspace located just south of Village Hall’s parking lot at Lombard and Adams. Village leaders have been in consensus that the new police station is the ‘must have” feature of the project, as the short-staffed Oak Park Police Department operates out of a space in the basement of Village Hall that’s been considered outdated for years.
Other issues long expected to be addressed by the architect’s proposals include how will Village Hall be made more accessible to people with disabilities, how will parking at the facility be impacted and to what extent will the building be renovated as opposed to reconstructed.
The Village Hall debate had become a central issue in the village presidential election, as Scaman and Parakkat presented dramatically different pictures of what the construction project would cost the village.
Scaman held through the campaign that it’s been her priority and the will of the entire board that the total cost of the project, including both police station and Village Hall renovation, be kept as close to $100 million as possible. While Parakkat contended that the project would balloon to at least $140 million if continued under Scaman’s leadership.
Voters ultimately put their trust behind Scaman, but Parakkat will get a last chance to use his vote to help shape the future of the project.