Our proposal included a 3,400-square-foot rooftop garden to grow fruits and vegetables for the restaurants. Now, a restaurant in Chicago has created such a rooftop garden and has gained network news coverage as the "first certified organic farm on a rooftop in the U.S." It was described in the Chicago newspapers earlier this month, and you can be sure it will be written up in newspapers worldwide and in many environmental, tourist and architectural magazines in the future. That publicity and status would have belonged to Oak Park if our proposal had been granted. Instead, the approval was given to another condo developer, who reneged.

We also proposed a hotel in a natural location. It would be within our complex of a landscaped park, including pavilions of restaurants grouped according to continent, banquet halls, retailers, a 100,000-square-foot arts center (containing theaters, classrooms, galleries, library, workshops, rehearsal space and production studios), and a moderately sized convention center. The location is also far superior to that of Lake and Forest. It is directly across the street from the Lake Street el and the Northwestern train, and adjacent to a major Illinois highway. At the only corner where Oak Park, River Forest and Forest Park meet, the prospect for marketing to residents of all three towns is unsurpassed.

Another factor to consider is the approaching October vote for the 2016 Olympics. If granted to Chicago, what attraction does Oak Park have to offer? What is the village board considering? Bulgarian weightlifters aren't going to spend a lot of time taking tours of Unity Temple and Hemingway's boyhood home.

Watching the board meetings on cable, I have heard nothing about planning to take advantage of a prospective Olympics here. The restaurant park and cultural center should be number one on the list. A couple of jazz and rock nightclubs, world-class dining, legitimate concerts, professional theater and hotel accommodations for visitors would bring them to Oak Park. We would have a bonafide tourist attraction for the entire world to see. Again I ask, what is the village board considering, if anything? Has anyone on the board even given a thought to how Oak Park could take advantage of the Olympics?

As far as financing, our request to the village for the land being provided for $1 was far less than the $14 million giveaway planned at Lake and Forest, and our revenue projection from taxes and license fees of about $4 million per year is far greater. The spillover to downtown Oak Park, and the promise for a rebirth of revenue generation, is obvious.

Les Golden, whose family has lived in Oak Park since 1948, is part of Holley Court Commercial Partners, which presented a proposal to the village of Oak Park for a restaurant and performing arts complex at South and Harlem in 2006.