On October 7^th the Forest Preserve District Board of Commissioners approved negotiating a lease with the Village of Hinsdale to allow Hinsdale to build a sports and recreational park on Bemis Woods in a western forest preserve.  The board voted 9-4 with 1 present vote and 3 absent commissioners to transfer the land, despite the protests of Friends of the Parks, Friends of the Forest Preserves, OpenLands, Sierra Club and Civic Federation along with 100 activists that showed up to try to prevent this illegal action. 

The Village of Hinsdale seeks to construct two lighted soccer fields, a new baseball field with a concrete dugout, bleachers, a shelter and other facilities for active recreation, events, festivals, concerts and other park district activities. 

As a park advocacy organization, Friends of the Parks, naturally, supports the addition of parks in cities and villages in the county, but, only on park district or city-owned land.

Villages and cities are responsible for planning for and acquiring city or park district land for parks in their communities.  They are not entitled, due to their poor planning, to grab land from the Forest Preserve District. 

The Hinsdale project violates the Forest Preserves’ Land Use Policy, Section 2-5-4A:

Transfer of Land.  No transfer of such lands or authority to control and  manage such lands in a manner inconsistent with the defined mission of   the District shall be made for municipal, school or park districts or similar  public or private uses. 

In addition, the Hinsdale proposal violates the basic mission of the Forest Preserve District:   “to acquire and hold lands…for the purpose of protecting and preserving the flora, fauna…in their natural state and condition…”  

Friends of the Parks worked hard to try to prevent this action from moving forward, but the Forest Preserve Commissioners voted it up.