Trustee and residents discuss downtown grocery proposal and master-plan alignment; mayor asked to clarify remarks

Trustee Lesniak and public commenters asked the board to clarify recent remarks and to provide accurate public information about discussions with Sprouts and the Family Square downtown property. During trustee reports, Lesniak said he had seen “very misleading, erroneous” social-media posts about the downtown grocery discussion and told residents he did not believe Mayor Mullen had said the village categorically excluded Sprouts from town. “It is my understanding that you did not tell Sprouts or the representative that Lisle does not want them anywhere in our town,” Lesniak said, and invited the mayor to clarify. Resident Dean Brecco earlier said the developer of Sprouts told him they had “never heard of a situation where any community has turned down their grocery store,” and he expressed surprise at the Village’s handling of the potential grocery-store proposal at the Family Square site. Manager Cook and other staff said at the meeting that the village follows its publicly posted master plan and statutory processes when evaluating redevelopment proposals; no new board decision was taken at the Aug. 18 meeting to accept or reject any grocery proposal. Lesniak urged residents to consult public meeting minutes and documents for the full context and asked staff to make materials more accessible.