Park Board forms committee to begin discussion on future of Beth Hillel property

A split Wilmette Park Board has approved a temporary committee to guide the planning for the park district’s new and large property in west Wilmette.

The tentatively named Process and Transparency Committee was approved via a 5-2 vote during the Park Board’s regular meeting on Monday, June 9.

Park Board President Patrick Lahey came up with the idea for the committee to specifically review the Beth Hillel Bnai Emunah synagogue property, a nearly 5-acre property at 3220 Big Tree Lane, just off of Glenview Road and near the Edens Expressway, that the district purchased in 2024 for $5.4 million.

Park officials have stated multiple times over the past year that they do not have a plan for what they will use the site for.

In a memo to commissioners, Lahey wrote that this new committee will not make the decision on what to do with the Beth Hillel site, but rather “develop a framework and draft a timeline for how decisions are made, how community input is gathered, and how any potential project meets the community’s needs within the District’s strategic and comprehensive plans.”

Additionally, Lahey wrote, the committee “will also consider how the site fits into the District’s broader capital planning and property life cycles.”

He recommended that current Park Board Vice President Allison Frazier serve as the group’s chairperson, while Commissioners Kara Kosloskus and Patrick Duffy, who just finished two years as president and vice president, respectively, round out the three-member committee.

“It’s key here to point out the committee will not design or recommend a specific project, and after one year, the board will revisit the structure and scope,” Lahey said at the meeting.

While Duffy agreed to serve on the committee, he voted against its approval, saying that it would be better to discuss Beth Hillel at the board’s monthly Committee of the Whole meetings.

“I believe that it would benefit every commissioner to be a part of the public process of this, so that everybody, when we have consultants come to us or when we have public engagement at those meetings, that all the commissioners can hear and have the opportunity to comment back,” he said. “And in a committee structure with three commissioners, not every commissioner … can comment on it in the moment because that would be a violation of the Open Meetings Act.”

Kosloskus asked Lahey if the board would discuss any recommendations made by the committee, which Lahey said would happen.

“We have that seven-person model. This is a three-person model,” he said. “That worked well for this board in the past and we’re just trying parallel paths.”

Commissioner Mike Murdock, who also voted against approving the committee, questioned if that meant the Park Board will return to a previous format where no Committee of the Whole meeting was held, and instead commissioners discussed matters in three-person committees before returning to the board.

“This is a pretty significant departure from what we’ve done over the last three years,” he said. “I actually like the committee structure going back further. Are we then thinking that we’re going to move toward that older committee structure again or this is sort of a one-off?”

Lahey said he considers this a one-time trial, while also saying this doesn’t mean the board will return to the previous committee format.

“We shouldn’t be afraid of trying new things,” he said. “I think with a committee that has last year’s leadership and current vice president and a pretty clear scope is worth a try.”

Commissioner Cecilia Clarke said she believes a smaller committee would be more efficient for determining the process of how to proceed.

“A streamlined committee may be just better process for that rather than having seven different opinions floating around,” she said.

Frazier added that she’s looking forward to being a part of the committee.

“I think we have an opportunity ahead of us to fully engage the community and with that comes time and planning to decide how to best go about that process,” she said. “We want to be as thorough as possible and look at the different avenues in which to gather feedback, and I view this committee as accomplishing that.”

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