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The South Barrington Park District’s sale of vacant land to the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church has been halted amid community opposition and legal action.
“The real estate closing is on hold,” Scott Puma, an attorney for the park district, said Wednesday. It had been scheduled for Tuesday, officials said.
Puma’s confirmation came hours before a public demonstration against the deal at the park district’s community center. About 25 protesters, including a few kids, waved signs and repeated chants including “Stop the sale” and “No PBCC” as a TV news helicopter hovered far overhead. Their enthusiasm waned after the chopper left.
Initially gathered near the building entrance, they moved to a nearby spot in the parking lot after a conversation with police officers.
The park district board is set to meet at the community center at 7 p.m. Wednesday. The land deal isn’t on the agenda, but critics have said they plan to pack the meeting room.
Earlier this week, park district Executive Director Jay Morgan said the board wasn’t considering terminating the sale.
District leaders postponed the real estate closing after receiving copies of a legal complaint and a request for a temporary restraining order seeking to block the sale of the 34-acre site, which is south of where Bartlett Road and Route 59 meet and north of the Woods of South Barrington residential subdivision.
The church is set to buy the land for about $1.7 million. It wants to erect a house of worship and a school there.
The complaint — targeting the church, the park district and the village — was brought forth by anonymous South Barrington residents, documents indicate.
The matter hasn’t yet been heard by a Cook County judge.
This past April, voters approved a plan to sell the site at auction. The church was the only bidder in May.
Local critics of the plan say they’re concerned about the ecological impact of the proposed development, the conversion of the land into private property, traffic and other issues. Some have criticized the church itself, too.
Plymouth Brethren Christian Church members follow a doctrine of separation and don’t socialize with nonmembers.
In response, church spokeswoman Jacquelynne Willcox said the proposal “is sensitive to the preservation of wetlands on the site.” She also said the church will ensure minimal traffic disruption.
Willcox noted the church already has removed a proposed access road from Acadia Drive within the Woods of South Barrington from the plan because of the community’s concerns.
“That we have altered our plans for this site is evidence that we listen to the communities that we live in, and try to ensure that we can accommodate them,” Willcox said in an email late last week.
As for the complaints about the church, Willcox insisted it is not a closed organization.
“We have lived and worked in communities in this region for more than 150 years,” she said. “We help our neighbors and they help us. We care for and protect their property and they do ours.”
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