The village of Lake Zurich is already budgeting for its potential sale of Kuechmann Park.
At the village’s April 11 budget workshop, Finance Director Jodie Hartman said the park improvement fund could receive $100,000 in revenue from the sale of Kuechmann Park to Ela Township, should it happen.
“It’s a place holder, so that will have to officially be decided at a later date,” Hartman said. “But we wanted to at least put something in there for now.”
Village officials have been in talks with the township about selling the park for several months. Township Supervisor Lucy Prouty told the Pioneer Press late last year that the township was running out of playing field space, and that Kuechmann Park might be a good location for more.
Village Manager Jason Slowinski said that he wasn’t certain that the village would get exactly $100,000 from the sale, but wanted to at least account for an amount in the budget.
Last year, the park’s more than 6 acres of sellable land was appraised at between $600,000 and $800,000. About 1.5 acres located on the northwest side of the park cannot be sold because it is a “recreation area.”
When Trustee Jeff Halen asked at the budget workshop why staff would account for the sale if they weren’t certain it would happen, Slowinski explained that it was a judgment call.
The sale, to Slowinski, was “fairly likely.”
“We have 12 months in the budget year and I think something will happen within those 12 months,” Slowinski said. “Being confident that it will happen, I think it’s important to put it in.”
More important than budgeting for the amount, Slowinski said, was the location in which the funds would be placed: The park improvement fund, which has been struggling to sustain itself.
This fiscal year, the village is expecting to spend about $245,000 out of the park improvement fund on projects like replacing playground equipment and renovating the Paulus Park barn. Without the sale of Kuechmann Park, the fund would only be taking in about $1,000 in revenue.
If the fund only takes in $1,000 this fiscal year, it’s balance would be knocked from $255,515 down to around $11,000.
Last year, former Park and Recreation Advisory Board member Dawn Brazier said that she didn’t think the money from selling the park would go back into the park improvement fund. It was one of the reasons she wasn’t in favor of the village selling the park. Other critics of the prospective sale had suggested the same.
Critics have included residents like Mike Kleeman, who lives near the park and doesn’t want to see its 200-year-old oak trees and natural habitat disrupted, and Oak Ridge Marsh Conservation Group founder Judi Thode, who recently formed the nonprofit Anicent Oaks Foundation with Kleeman to help preserve natural areas like Kuechmann Park.
A sizable group of residents living near the park spoke out against its sale after learning that the Park and Recreation Advisory Board had recommended that the village do so — it was a unique park that, with some work, could be utilized for programming and used by more people.
Officials have been tossing around the idea of selling Kuechmann Park since the village’s fall 2011 Open Space & Recreation Master Plan suggested the park was in need of improvements carrying a price tag of roughly $100,000. The plan also suggested that only a small percentage of the village’s population used the park.
Laura Pavin is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.