Resident calls for referendum, alleges insufficient due diligence on Bears stadium plan; board says no decision yet
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Summary
A resident criticized village handling of the proposed Chicago Bears stadium and urged a referendum, while the mayor and staff emphasized that no village decision has been made and that impact studies remain incomplete.
Norbert Petrovski addressed the Village Board during public comment on April 6, urging a referendum and criticizing what he called an absence of unbiased due diligence on the proposed Chicago Bears stadium.
"The board hired a consultant that told them what they wanted to hear, not what they should hear," Petrovski said, telling the board he filed a Freedom of Information Act request and found only limited publicly available material.
President Tonali replied that "nothing has been decided" and that any final approvals would rest with the village board. Tonali noted that much of the current work is in the hands of Springfield and the Bears and that residents will have opportunities to weigh in later.
Village staff and trustees clarified that traffic and fiscal impact studies are not yet complete and that some studies were paused when state‑level deliberations began. "Those traffic studies, those fiscal economic impact studies ... have not even been finished and completed to the sense that they've been brought to our attention and made public," Trustee Bertucci said.
No board action was taken on the stadium issue at the meeting; officials reiterated that preliminary materials remain under development and that final board consideration would follow completion of required studies.
