Arlington Heights officials looked ahead to coming milestones in the Chicago Bears’ proposed redevelopment at Arlington international Racecourse during a meeting Monday night, but stressed that the process is still in very early stages.
Village staff held a Bears-oriented presentation for newly seated and returning trustees at the Village Board Committee of the Whole meeting Monday night, walking through actions over the last two years’ at the racetrack, which is also known as Arlington Park.
“[The Bears] can ask for whatever they want,” Mayor Tom Hayes said while responding to a public comment on whether and how tax dollars would support the project. “But it will be subject to discussion and public input and a vote by somebody.”
The Bears officially purchased the 326-acre site in February, more than a year after signing a $197.2 million purchase agreement for the property. The team’s opening volley for redeveloping the racetrack is a domed NFL stadium, entertainment complex and mixed-use commercial development expected to cost at least $5 billion.
“We’ve still got a long, long way to go,” Trustee Tom Schwingbeck said Monday.
New trustees Wendy Dunnington and Scott Shirley took over the spots vacated by Mary Beth Canty, who is now in the General Assembly, and John Scaletta, who retired. Dunnington and Shirley ran uncontested for the seats, and Trustee Robin LaBedz and Schwingbeck were reelected.
Officials from the Arlington Heights police and fire departments, and the Department of Community Planning and Development addressed the COTW Monday night on the work the departments have done so far in anticipation of the Bears’ move from Soldier Field at the Chicago lakefront to the village.
While much has changed between the initial moves at the racetrack and the Bears’ closing on the property, village staff repeated to board members that almost everything about the proposed project still needs to be determined.
The team recently filed for demolition permits with the village to tear down the racetrack’s grandstand.
“They’ve applied and there’s nothing new in the demolition permit,” said Village Manager Randy Recklaus.
Brian Costin, director of Prosperity Illinois ― which has been a vocal opponent of possible public funding the Bears redevelopment project, delivered a public comment deeming demolition of the grandstand an “enormous risk for the taxpayers of Arlington Heights.”
Right now, staff said, they are looking at how other communities have hosted professional sports stadiums and accompanying development, at developments that have succeeded and others that have flopped, and possible economic and infrastructure outcomes the Bears could bring to the village.
Village staff has held workshops with the National Center for Sports Safety and security on sports and special event risk management, consulted with academics who study stadium developments and visited to other municipalities that host professional sports stadiums, officials said.
Police Chief Nicholas Pecora reported on a series of trips police brass took to stadiums right outside of Dallas, Las Vegas and suburban Los Angeles to watch how other law enforcement agencies handle mass entertainment events. Pecora said four police department members are headed to Minneapolis at the end of the week for a similar expedition.
Pecora said police research so far has yielded a mixed message on how NFL stadium development stood to impact the local crime rate and said the department would pursue federal funding to support law enforcement at the redeveloped racetrack.
He told trustees to expect that a Bears development would produce an uptick in the demand for law enforcement services.
“Whether [with] pre-planned events, intelligence gathering, risk assessment, communications or crowd management, an increased workload on a police department should be anticipated,” Pecora said.
Pecora previously said that the department may enter into agreements with neighboring police departments to help boost manpower on days when the site draws NFL-sized crowds. He made a similar note Monday night while recounting some of the research visits the department had done.
“One thing that really stood out at each of these locations is no police department did it on their own,” Pecora said. “The host agency managed operations with these systems with the assistance of neighboring local jurisdictions, county and state agencies all working together.”
The Arlington Heights Fire Department was one of two departments to provide a formal report to the COTW Monday for review. The written portion of the report states that the nebulous nature of the team’s proposal prohibits specific planning ahead.
“As final development plans have not been negotiated or approved, it is difficult to say precisely what future operational needs the Fire Department will have,” the report states.
In his presentation to board members, Chief Lance Harris said fire department personnel had also taken a trip to observe emergency service management at SoFi stadium in Inglewood, California — just outside of Los Angeles.
Their main takeaway from that visit and other research, he said, had been that “the service models really vary from venue to venue. … We still don’t have enough information.”
One major source of information is a pair of studies the village first commissioned in September 2022 to analyze the potential transportation and financial impacts of an NFL stadium project and accompanying mixed-use development.
Director of Community Planning and Development Charles Perkins said in his presentation that much of the work would begin once consultants had done studies and reviewed Bears-commissioned analyses.
“They’re waiting in the wings for when the Bears are ready to submit the detailed plans and studies,” Perkins said. “We’re not just taking the Bears’ word for it.”
The written report Perkins’ department presented to the board gives a rundown of milestones in the project beginning in May 2021 and ending with the Bears finalizing their purchase of the site.
“Redevelopment of 326 acres of prime real estate creates a center of opportunity for a dynamic and unique redevelopment,” the report states.
Perkins echoed the magnitude of the project while addressing trustees: “We knew this would be very big,” he said. We just didn’t know how big it was going to be.”
Much of Perkins’ presentation focused on decisions the village had already made around zoning at the site.
Those ordinances prohibit certain land uses at the racetrack and subdividing the property, among other things, in pursuit of the “highest and best use for the property.”
Perkins referred to those initial decisions as “kind of a table setting exercise, just to give the [village] more control.”
Recklaus echoed the point that any plans the team submits will be subject to village approval.
“We’re aiming to use all of our legal, financial and regulatory tools as artfully as possible to ensure that a good outcome for our residents is reached,” he said.
Staff from other village departments are expected to present their goals and completed projects at Committee of the Whole meetings set for May 15 and May 30.
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