The proposed cricket stadium in Oswego that could one day seat up to 24,000 people can now move forward after a long-awaited ruling from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
The Breybourne Stadium project got preliminary and phase one approvals from the Oswego Village Board in November 2023, but construction on that first phase and the board’s consideration of future phases was delayed after the U.S. EPA continued to push back a decision on the site’s wetlands.
The EPA was reviewing whether or not the wetlands on the 33-acre property, on the northwest corner of Tuscany Trail and Orchard Road, meet the qualifications to be “jurisdictional” — that is, whether or not they are federally regulated, developer and Breybourne Cricket Club CEO Paresh Patel previously said.
Patel told The Beacon-News last week that the EPA notified him of its decision on Dec. 3, over a year and a half after the review first began. The agency ruled that the wetlands were “non-jurisdictional,” meaning they were governed by the village of Oswego rather than the federal government, he said.
While the project will still need to address the wetlands, potentially by mitigating them on or off site or by purchasing credits, it will be easier to work with the village rather than waiting for months to hear back from the U.S. EPA, Patel said.
“The process might be a little faster, but that does not negate the fact that we still have to address the wetlands,” he said.
The Rock Island District of the Army Corps of Engineers previously came to the same conclusion the U.S. EPA recently reached, but that decision still needed to be reviewed by the EPA for final approval, according to Patel. He previously said the Army Corps of Engineers’ findings were sent to the EPA for review in November 2023.
But, the EPA review process started even earlier than that. An application was submitted to ask the EPA to review the wetlands in May 2023.
After receiving the Army Corps of Engineers determination, the EPA said it would sign off on the findings by mid-December 2023, Patel previously said. However, the deadline continued to be delayed – first to February, then to March, then to June and again to October.
When October came, the EPA continued to delay its deadline, this time until Jan. 3, 2025, he previously said.
Construction on phase one of the project, which is just the cricket pitch, was supposed to start in spring 2024, according to past reporting.
The project has now been delayed a year, and Patel said last week that phase one construction is now set to start in the spring or early summer of 2025, if everything goes according to plan.
Construction has not yet started on phase one because the wetlands could not be touched until the U.S. EPA reached its decision, according to Patel. He said the project’s phase one plans might still need to be changed based on guidance from the village.
He is set to meet with the village about the project this week, he said.
There is currently no timeline on when future phases of the project may come to the Oswego Village Board for approval, Patel said. At this week’s meeting, Patel and his team will get guidance from the village about how to address the wetlands, and then they will look at what it will take to redesign phase two based on that guidance, he said.
Patel previously said that phase two of the project is planned to include mitigation measures concerning stormwater that enters the wetlands. That phase was originally planned to go before the Oswego Village Board in summer 2024.
In addition to the stormwater infrastructure, phase two of the stadium project would add a players’ clubhouse and training center, seating for up to 2,000 spectators and parking lots on the south, east and west of the site.
Phase three of the project, which was previously proposed for late 2024 or 2025, would add another clubhouse for members of the Breybourne Cricket Club, seating for up to 6,000 spectators and a parking lot on the north side of the property.
Future phases of the project, which would include seating for up to 24,000 people, would rely on the success of previous phases, Patel previously said.
Plans for the site also include a hotel and restaurant, officials said.
rsmith@chicagotribune.com
