No more condos in Lake Zurich
As a longtime Lake Zurich resident whose parents grew up here in the 40s, I thought I had seen the worst of what this village board could do to replace our beautiful, aesthetic community with what the mayor calls in his newsletter, "inevitable urbanization", as he refers to the potential condo units for the Nestlerest property.
This proposal will not be a fix for the downtown area; on the contrary, all it will do will add unwanted traffic to a very small, quiet street, and more ugliness to the lakefront. We already have two different condo complexes dotting the lakefront. Why do we need more to sully the nice view?
The answer is that we are still living, evidently, in the Krischke era, even though he is long gone from the debacle that he has caused in this town. When he and his cronies were first elected, their platform was to keep this town single family. Some of us still have their campaign literature to prove it. But time and time again, they have given in to developers, without any regard for the public they profess to represent.
Yes, something needed to be done about the downtown; what these supposed public servants don't realize is that we are a one intersection downtown, not an Arlington Heights. So, the downtown "revitalization" should have been confined to what makes sense for a small downtown area. And since the Nestlerest property is not part of the TIF district, how does a development there help the downtown?
Many residents have told me they moved here because we were a single-family home community. Why can't it stay that way? This proposed development will help no one but the developer's pockets. The residents along Robertson Road and the surrounding areas will lose money in property value if this thing is allowed to go through, in addition to the headache of the increased traffic on their little street.
I think it's about time that everyone gets together to let the board know that this is unacceptable; the "if it's not in my backyard" excuse can't work anymore. We all voted to get some new trustees on this board, but leaving the incumbent mayor still swings everything the same way as before, since he has the tiebreaker vote on everything.
The TIF district is in trouble, and the taxpayers will be left holding the bag at the end of it if it is in the red. We must come together as a village and let this board know that this is not to be tolerated.
We do not need or want another condo development at Nestlerest or anyplace else in town.
Chris Matter Lake Zurich