A majority of Elmhurst voters accepted the Elmhurst Park District’s plan for an $89.95 million bond problem to finance the alternative of the district’s growing old Joanne B. Wagner Community Center, construct a brand new bandshell in Wilder Park and add facilities to different metropolis parks.
Unofficial vote totals from the Nov. 5 election present practically 15,000 votes in favor of the mission versus 11,000 in opposition to.
The complete spending plan consists of $84.95 million to interchange the Wagner Center, 615 N. West Ave. District officers stated the brand new Wagner Center will function an indoor strolling/jogging observe, a health club for pick- leball, basketball and volleyball, synthetic turf for sports activities together with soccer, soccer and baseball, gymnastics areas, early childhood lecture rooms, bigger dance studios and multi-purpose areas.
The record of tasks additionally consists of $2.5 million for a wraparound facility and heated restrooms in Wilder Park, heated restrooms at to-be-determined areas alongside the Prairie Path and in Eldridge and Crestview parks at $500,000 every, and $1 million {dollars} for synthetic turf on an present discipline in Berens Park.
James Rogers, govt director of the Park District, stated owners will see referendum-related tax will increase on their property taxes for the primary time in 2025. Rogers stated that whatever the timing of the bond gross sales of the district, the influence on property taxes will stay unchanged. over the anticipated 25-year lifetime of the bonds.
District officers had beforehand estimated an annual property tax improve of $253 for a house with a market worth of $400,000. The proprietor of a house with a market worth of $600,000 would see an annual improve of roughly $380, whereas the proprietor of a house with a market worth of $1,000,000 would see an annual improve of roughly $633.
According to a district assertion, mission growth for the brand new Wagner Community Center and different tasks on the referendum record are anticipated to be accomplished in 2025. Programs and companies now at Wagner are anticipated to be relocated beginning within the fall of subsequent yr, even whether or not they are going to alternate areas has not but been decided.
Construction on the brand new Wagner Center is anticipated to start in 2026 for an anticipated fall 2027 opening.
The neighborhood facility, year-round heated restrooms and synthetic turf discipline will probably be accomplished in 2026-2028, in keeping with district officers.
According to Park District commissioners, the Park District’s final referendum was in 1972. In late 2019, Park District board members deserted a $105 million plan for an indoor sports activities facility and different growth tasks parks after survey outcomes on the time confirmed weak neighborhood assist.
That wasn’t the case this time.
“Our residents have been an important a part of this course of from the start, sharing their imaginative and prescient as we deliberate Elevate Elmhurst Parks, offering suggestions on the plans throughout quite a few open homes, responding to our voter survey, after which voting,” Kevin Graf, president of the Park Board, stated in a press release. “We are delighted to have the ability to notice their imaginative and prescient.”
Graydon Megan is a contract journalist for Pioneer Press.
