Parents, residents oppose proposed Westfield access road as district seeks design phase for parking improvements

Members of the Community Unit School District 300 Board Operations Committee spent a large portion of their Jan. 14 meeting reviewing a multi-part plan to reconfigure parking and traffic at Westfield Community School and considering a proposed access road that would tie the school to a nearby Leonard development.

The proposal has drawn opposition from nearby residents who spoke during public participation and from some board members who asked for more phased cost detail. Speakers raised safety, privacy, environmental and fiscal concerns and questioned whether lower-cost changes to existing parking could resolve problems without building a new road.

Resident Michael Gall told the committee the field south of Westfield is widely used by children and community groups and said a new road “would be detrimental to the Westfield School and to the local community.” He objected that the road would run behind houses and that a connector to the Westfield parking lot could disrupt morning and…