If adding soccer fields at Duncan Field is not going to be part of an agreement between the Village of Hinsdale and the Forest Preserve District of Cook County, the deal may be off.

“We feel soccer fields are a deal breaker, and if they are not going to be part of the intergovernmental agreement, it doesn’t make sense to keep pursuing an agreement,” said Village President Tom Cauley.

During a Tuesday, Oct. 20, Village Board meeting Cauley said staff from both the village and forest preserve district are scheduled to meet again in early November to try and hammer out the final details of an agreement.

The village is attempting to ink a deal with the district, which owns a 32-acre tract of land north of Ogden Avenue and west of the Tri-State Tollway the village wants to re-develop and restore at a cost of $2 million.

Under terms of an existing lease with the district the village is allowed to use a baseball field on the site — Duncan Field — for soccer and baseball programs.

The lease has been renewed every year since 1981.

On Oct. 14, the Forest Preserve District Board voted 9-4 to accept a Real Estate Committee’s report on the new intergovernmental agreement, a move which allowed negotiations to continue between the two parties before a final vote will be taken.

That vote is not expected to be taken in November, officials said.

“Until an agreement is successfully negotiated, it will not be brought up again to the County Board,” said Elizabeth Doody Gorman, board member of the Forest Preserve District from the 17th District, which serves Hinsdale and other communities in the western part of Cook County.

During the past several weeks the plan has come under fire from forest preserve advocacy groups who say the plan — which would provide $2 million in improvements including two new soccer fields, a bike/hike trail and restoration of about 28 acres to its natural habitat — does not fit in with the mission of the district.

“We need to be vigilant and protect our open space,” said Gerald Adelmann, executive director of Openlands, an advocacy group whose mission is to protect open space in Northeastern Illinois.

“We are concerned about the precedent this agreement might eventually set. If one municipality is allowed to designate and use forest preserve land for a specific purpose, then where do you draw the line?”

Cauley and Doody Gorman said one of the issues that needs to be resolved is over terminology in the district’s mission statement.

The statement, published on the district’s Web site, calls for the district to “hold lands ... for the purpose of protecting and preserving the flora, fauna, and scenic beauties within such district ... for the purpose of education, pleasure, and recreation of the public.”

Doody Gorman said she understands the argument for “protecting and preserving” open space, but differs on the interpretation of the word “recreation.”

“The mission statement does not say ‘passive’ recreation, but ‘recreation.’ The improvements being proposed would increase active and passive recreation opportunities for many residents,” she said.

Attempts to reach Steven Bylina Jr., general superintendent of the district, were unsuccessful.
Sue Gould, president of the American Youth Soccer Organization Region 210, which serves Hinsdale, Oak Brook, Burr Ridge and Clarendon Hills, said the organization supports the village’s effort.

“We run programs for 2,600 kids, and obviously we support the plan,” Gould said. “AYSO participation grows every year, and we don’t want to have to turn kids away because we don’t have space.

“We think the plan is good for all concerned. It’s not like the village wants to go crazy and put up a strip mall.”