Politics & Government

Park Board Rejects De-Annexation Requests

Park district board members unanimously rejected the de-annexation requests of Hunt Club and Corporate Woods subdivisions.

  • Updated Mar. 17, 9:28 p.m.

After a hefty amount of discussion from petitioners and opposition, the two subdivisions were denied requests to de-annex from the park district Thursday night after board members cited a negative impact on the district as a whole, and on a technicality, improper petition formatting.

According to attorney Charlene Holtz, the petitions indicate a wish to disconnect through referendum, and said there are no state law provisions for the board to make the decision based on that language. She also said the petitions indicate that the signees are residents and voters, but not necessarily property owners. Parks and recreation director Dan Garvy added they need more information on how to address the common areas within each subdivision.

Cynthia Moderi, who generated the petition for the Hunt Club subdivision, said the petitions were gathered with the intent to take the request to referendum, but missed the Illinois Board of Elections deadline. The formatting was explained in a cover letter attached to the petition. She emphasized their request was not a reflection on deficiencies in the park district, but simply not convenient to their needs.

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Holtz recommended that petitioners confer with legal counsel.

Residents indicated that they would still pursue de-annexation, and are open to annexing into a nearby park system. MaryLynn Zajdel said that subdivision residents have considered annexing into the Naperville or Wheaton park districts, considering that Lisle neighborhoods just north of Corporate Woods and Hunt Club belong to Wheaton's park system.

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  • Updated: Mar. 15, 9:48 a.m.

Residents of two Lisle subdivisions have the attention of the Lisle Park Board.

At their , park district officials will discuss petitions the residents have submitted that request de-annexation from the park district, said Dan Garvy, director of parks and recreation.

A majority of residents in the Hunt Club subdivision say they do not reap the district’s benefits and think neighboring park districts are more logical choices based on the proximity at the north edge of Lisle and the schools their children attend, which are not in Lisle.

The Corporate Woods petition was signed by a majority of homeowners. No one could be reached to comment on why the subdivision wants out.

Garvy said the park district has no official position, but he warned that the petitions were signed by a "slim majority" and that a successful de-annexation could mean adjusted tax demand for the rest of Lisle.  

“This is a park district-wide issue and should involve the whole district,” Garvy said. “It’s a petition from however many people signed the petition. But whatever action the board takes is going to affect the whole park district.”

According to a March 11 memo Garvy sent to the park board commissioners, if the petition meets necessary criteria—a majority of landowners on board and all tax issues square with the county clerk, for example—the board may allow the disconnection. It also has the power to deny.

"Section 3-6 gives the board of park commissioners the sole discretion to grant or deny a disconnection request made pursuant to this particular section," the memo said. "Thus, even if all requirements are met, the board of park commissioners has the discretion and authority to deny such a request."

Christopher Cantele, 48, 2104 Pebble Creek Dr., signed the Corporate Woods petition.

"I would hope they let us disconnect," Cantele said. "We’re not really using it and supporting it so I don’t think there’s a point to being included in it."

According to numbers supplied by Garvy, 11 of 17 property owners signed the Hunt Club petition and 23 of 41 signed the Corporate Woods petition. In an e-mail sent March 11, Garvy said he received a call from a Hunt Club signer who wanted to be removed from the list.

Cynthia Moderi, who has coordinated the Hunt Club effort, said she and her neighbors found in February 2010 they each were being charged approximately $1,100 in taxes to support a Lisle Park District that never, since she moved into her current home in 1997, sent her the district’s booklet that advertises programs to Lisle residents.

“There are not that many facilities or services in our area,” Moderi, 60, said. “It’s nothing against the Lisle Park District, it’s just that from where we’re located, it doesn’t seem to make much sense to pay taxes to a body that nobody seems to use.”

John Henderson, 2500 Pebble Creek Dr. in Hunt Club, said the closest Lisle Park District facility is a mile away. Henderson, 59, said his three children went to preschool in Wheaton and elementary and high school in Naperville. 

"If I were using the facilities, I think it would be fair for me to pay the taxes," Henderson said.

Another Hunt Club resident, Stephen Anderson of 2540 Pebble Creek Dr., chose not to sign the petition.

"The park districts are an important part of what makes a community a community," Anderson said. "If there’s something wrong, we should probably try to fix it instead of trying to leave."

Anderson said he, unlike Moderi, did receive park district mailings from time to time, and said he wouldn't be surprised if neighbors had accidentally thrown them out, thinking they were junk mail.

Julie Schnell circulated the petition for the Corporate Woods subdivision, but chose not to comment, except to say that the topic is “not newsworthy.

“The more it’s in the news, the more we’re kicking up dust,” Schnell said.

Moderi said many Hunt Club residents pay non-resident fees so their children can participate in the activities of other park districts. Many children do so because they attend District 203 Naperville schools or private schools in Wheaton, Moderi said.

“Some people are using Wheaton; a lot of them are using Naperville; some aren’t using anything at all,” Moderi said.

David MacKenzie, office manager for the DuPage County Clerk, said a de-annexing neighborhood can become a part of another park district, but only if the neighborhood sits on a border with that district. Both Hunt Club and Corporate Woods sit near the northwest Lisle-Wheaton border.

Garvy said non-residents pay 50 percent more than residents for Lisle Park District activities and classes, but said different districts have different fees.

Anderson said participation in park sports leagues and activities isn't necessarily a bad thing.

"My view is it doesn’t hurt the kids to associate with new kids, too," the 60-year-old financial planner said. "They may be from another school district, but they're still 12-year-olds playing baseball."

One of Henderson's two sons, both now seniors at Naperville North, played Little League in Lisle for one year before using neighboring districts.

"My son played baseball with a bunch of kids he didn’t know and he didn’t enjoy it," Henderson said.

Anderson said he thinks those supporting de-annexation are trying to make a big-picture statement.

"I think a lot of the people who signed the petition also signed it knowing the park district is going to say 'no'," Anderson said. "It was a vehicle for them to say, 'I think taxes are too high.'"  

Anderson made clear he had not studied park district spending and said the body probably could be spending more carefully.

Corporate Woods petition signer David Nelson, who lives with his wife and three children at 2246 Pebble Creek Dr., was looking at his tax bill as he spoke on the phone to Lisle Patch, and said he pays taxes to 16 taxing districts. The most controversial is the —tax increment financing— will receive to move its corporate headquarters to Lisle.

Nelson said his frustration is "linked" to the Navistar situation, but only generally.

"It's not directly tied to the Navistar issue," Nelson said. "But I think there is a question of how do you make governing in Illinois more efficient."

Moderi said she and her neighbors in February 2010 held a homeowners meeting and discussed ways to get their property assessments down. It was there that they discovered how much money was going to the park district, Moderi, who is a real estate agent, would mail to the park district the neighborhood's petition about a year later, on Feb. 8, 2011.

If the subdivisions were de-annexed, the DuPage County Clerk would have to be involved in order for them to be annexed into another park district. MacKenzie of the clerk's office said he’s never heard of an area moving from one park district to another. He said it’s done often with fire districts.  

MacKenzie also said there’s no statute saying properties must be attached to a park district as they do with a school district. So the Lisle subdivisions, theoretically, could choose not to annex to a bordering park district if they were allowed to leave Lisle’s.

Lisle Patch was supplied a list of petition signers and, from public listings, gathered 16 phone numbers. Each of the petitioners with listed numbers was reached out to for comment.

Neither Moderi nor Schnell chose to give contact information for their neighbors.

Editor's note: Contact numbers for residents who signed petitions were collected through Yellow Pages. In the age of cell phones, some residents no longer have a land line or don't list their home number. We encourage any Hunt Club or Corporate Woods residents who wish to speak with us on this matter to contact the reporter who wrote this story, Joe O'Donnell,  joe.odonnell13@gmail.com.


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