Residents maintain opposition to venue

Lisa Longo patiently sat inside the boardroom at the Hoffman Estates Village Hall Monday.

The room wasn't nearly as filled as last week, where it was standing-room only while the village board debated -- and then narrowly approved -- the Prairie Creek Amphitheater.

Instead, on Monday, there were maybe a half-dozen residents awaiting the board's vote on a variance for the 8,900-seat concert venue.

Longo said it was hard to rally residents against the project, to get them to take time out of their schedules to attend a zoning meeting to share their noise concerns with village officials.

She said it was an eight-month ordeal assembling petitions and going door to door.

Longo said she knew a campaign to oppose the venue would be an uphill battle. Jam Productions had been approached by Mayor William McLeod, who said he wanted Jam to build the venue to replace the Poplar Creek Music Theater, demolished in 1995.

Jam President Jerry Michelson said he wants to be a good neighbor. He said Jam would be selective in choosing performers and that they won't include loud-decibel acts. He added many of the acts that played Poplar Creek would not be invited to the new Prairie Creek.

Checking the list of proposed performers Jam submitted to the village in 2006, the loudest acts as examples include Def Leppard, the Foo Fighters and ZZ Top.

Also on the guitar-heavy list were softer-rock acts like the Dave Matthews Band, Journey and Sheryl Crow.

Michelson also found himself defending himself from comments by resident Susana Padilla. She questioned why Jam no longer was involved in the First Midwest Bank Amphitheater in south suburban Tinley Park.

"We were bought out," Michelson said repeatedly.

Padilla said she wondered if it was a good idea bringing in Jam when the Tinley Park venue wasn't going well.

McLeod dismissed the issue of the Tinley Park venue as irrelevant.

Meanwhile Michael Jaffe, of The Jaffe Cos., the firm that's building the Arboretum of South Barrington shopping center, is excited about the theater. The Arboretum's site is across the street from Prairie Stone Business Park, where Sears Centre and Prairie Creek are located.

There are no shortages of opinions about Prairie Creek. Who would have thought rock 'n' roll was so complicated?

• Do you have any interesting Hoffman Estates story ideas? Send them to Ashok Selvam at (847) 427-4475 or aselvam@dailyherald.com.