Crystal Lake Park District Ends Negotitation on Ackman Property

For the past two years, the Crystal Lake Park District has had a 27-acre property at 8917 Ackman Road in Lake in the Hills under contract with the intention to build a community center on the property.

However, in an interview on Tuesday, Crystal Lake Park District Executive Director Jason Herbster said the two parties could not come to an agreement to facilitate the purchase. The negotiations broke down because the park district did not want billboards on the property, but there were existing contracts for the billboards.

“What they were willing to do was take the two on the property and convert them to electronic billboard,” Herbster said.

However, the property owner was insisting on a particular size of billboard that park board members thought was too large.

The park district promised the neighbors to the Ackman property that they would be good neighbors and they did not feel that a large, electronic billboard was being a good neighbor, Herbster said.

“The park board felt very strongly about that,” he said.

The park district had contracted the 27-acre property in an effort to finalize a location for a community center. Now that the property that was under contract is not an option, the park district will need to look for an alternative.

“We’ve got some other properties we’re going to look at,” Herbster said. “We are kind of back to square one we can hopefully move the process a little faster.”

The park district is seeking property to build a community center based on feedback in a 2010 attitude and interest survey that indicated residents wanted a community center and an aquatic option in the village. Currently, residents swim on the two beaches in the village, at the YMCA or Health Bridge.

Once an alternate property is found, the park district will reach out to residents to see what they want built and what they are willing to fund.

“We don’t want to put something out there and then have people not know where it’s going to be,” Herbster said. “We would most likely have to go to referendum to build the facility.”