Oct. 03--The judge mediating a two-year dispute over the 50-foot-tall bleachers at Crystal Lake South High School said Friday he's willing to give the parties involved more time to settle their differences before ordering the stands to be torn down.
The Illinois Supreme Court ruled last month that the school district was wrong for not seeking city approval before installing the bleachers in 2013, and Oct. 29 was set as the day a court-ordered demolition order will take effect.
But McHenry County Circuit Judge Michael Chmiel said Friday he was "gratified" to see that Community High School District 155, the city of Crystal Lake and the neighbors behind the bleachers who filed suit have now come together and appear to be working "to accommodate each other's interests."
Chmiel set another hearing for Oct. 22 to "see where parties have come to and determine next steps."
The groups met privately Friday afternoon. Although the school board approved a $233,000 bid this week to tear down the bleachers, there has also been talk of lowering their height instead in hopes that might satisfy the city and the neighbors at minimal additional expense to local taxpayers.
Thomas Burney, attorney for the neighbors who sued the school, has proposed that the district lower the stands to a "reasonable" height of about 21 feet, move the press box to the other side of the field and add landscaping and fencing to buffer the homes now dwarfed by what some have dubbed "The Berlin Wall of Steel." A similar proposal was rejected earlier by the city while the lawsuit against the school district was pending.
Burney has also suggested that the larger stands, built to accommodate the home-team crowd, be moved to the other side of the field, away from the homes, but that might displace tennis courts on that side of the field.
School district attorney Robert Swain, who had long argued that the school was immune to city zoning and building laws, said the district will work cooperatively toward a resolution.
"Some type of bleachers need to be standing in the end," he said.
Amanda Marrazzo is a freelance reporter.
