Pleasantdale Elementary School is just west of the land LTHS owns. “This is about elected officials selling out the children of Pleasantdale and the Willow Springs community for a $55 million windfall.” “Their whole sales process was carefully engineered to turn land just steps away from an elementary school into an industrial park,” Distasio said. Lyons Township High School has owned a 72-acre parcel of land in Willow Springs, shown above inside dotted line, for 60 years. Jim Distasio, who lives adjacent to the land that LTHS wants to sell, excoriated the board for disregarding the needs and wants of people who lived near the Willow Springs land. Most of the 30 or so people who made public comments opposed the sale of the land and accused the school board of not looking out for residents who live south of Joliet Road. Grace also said that Bridge executives told them that they had been working with LTHS for more than a year to purchase and secure development for the site. Neither Dillon nor Waterman answered when asked after the meeting if Bridge asked them to reject the bid. “To be clear, the elected board for the village of Willow Springs has no intentions of modifying our village code to allow an industrial development that will not be in the best interest of the community,” Grace told the school board. All of the Willow Springs village trustees attended the school board meeting. Grace said that industrial use of the land is prohibited by the Willow Springs zoning code. He also said he informed them that the land was zoned only for single-family housing, senior housing and retail. Willow Springs Village Administrator Ryan Grace addresses the Lyons Township High School District 204 administration during the school board’s Jan.
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