Champaign City Council & Park Board Seek Ways to Bring Parks to New Developments

Champaign's city council and park board want to make collaboration the key factor in getting parks built in new residential developments. They reached that conclusion during a joint meeting Wednesday night at the Park District's Virginia Theatre.

Park officials say the newest areas of the city are underserved when it comes to parks --- and they'd like more cooperation from developers in setting aside land for new facilities.

But Shawn Luesse of the Devonshire Group says developers are wary of any ordinance that would require them to provide a certain amount of park land, because they add to the cost of development. But he says negotiations can lead to agreements for new parks --- he sites a small park that Devonshire agreed to make room for in the new Applewood Valley subdivision in southwest Champaign. Luesse says doesn't mind talking with park officials when new developments are being designed.

"The idea that we are required to go the park district to talk about land donation is an Okay concept", says Luesse. "But I don't believe it requires an ordinance. But I don't believe that it requires an ordinance. I don't think an ordinance would add anything to the process. And there would be what I believe to be substantial pushback from the development community, if there were an ordinance in place."

After hearing from Luesse, some council members were way of using the word "mandatory" at all. Assistant City Planning Director Rob Kowalski says they'll keep working on an approach that will satisfy the city, park district --- and developers, too.

"We're going to continue to try and find a collaborative way between the city, the park district and the development community", says Kowalski, "that we can come up with a proposal that works fro everybody. I think it's going to be very challenging to do that, but we're going to continue to head down that path."

Champaign Park Board President Jane Solon says new developments added to the city in the past decade don't have enough park land to serve their residents. Developers who came to the joint meeting said they're willing to talk about adding parks to new subdivisions --- but are wary of any mandatory commitment, because of the cost factor.

Assistant Planning Director Rob Kowalski says it will be challenging, but his staff will try to find an alternative to the "mandatory" approach, that will give the city, park district and developers a way to work together on placing parks in new residential areas.