Glenview Connect process nears its end
After a full year of data mining, open houses, board workshops and some 800 citizen comments and a community survey, the Glenview Connect process has just about run its course.
On Tuesday the Glenview Village board, joined in the Board Room by Erich Dohrer of Callison RTKL and Bill Cunningham of Ricker Cunningham, reviewed the draft Economic Development Strategic Plan and the teams' draft of the Downtown Strategic Plan. These span 325 pages.
It summarized a process announced publicly in June 2020 under former Village President Jim Patterson, whose tenure was saluted Tuesday by a proclamation from Cook County Commissioner Scott Britton.
Glenview Connect was initially targeted for nine-month completion at no more than $280,000 paid Callison and Ricker Cunningham. In April a resolution granted them an additional $50,000 to update the village's Downtown Development District zoning code. An introductory workshop toward that effort will be held at 7 p.m. July 22.
Glenview citizens who've participated in the process felt the downtown area should be the emphasis of any development plans, more so than Glenview Connect's other areas of focus - The Glen Town Center and the Milwaukee Avenue, Willow Road and Waukegan Road corridors. Dohrer said the group has spent 75 percent of its time working on options for the "Chase Block," the 3.90-acre site bounded by Glenview Road, the Chicago River and Dewes and Church streets.
Rather than offer a concrete destination for economic development, Glenview Connect produces guidelines toward potentialities.
"Ultimately what we're providing you with is a 250-page to-do list," Dohrer said of the economic plan. Jeff Brady, Glenview's director of community development, echoed that tact after the meeting.
To start attacking this list the consultants suggested a parking study, or hiring a parking consultant, and for the village to establish an "organized, self-funding" association like the Main Street America movement.
From suggested facade improvements along the corridors to a rooftop open space at The Glen Town Center, in most cases property owners would have to be contacted "to determine if they're aligned with community vision," as one of the presentation's slides showed.
Trustees asked Cunningham and Dohrer about timelines, and Cunningham noted that certain "triage" efforts might be completed within a year if funding is available, while speaking with property owners could potentially start immediately.
Trustee Adam Sidoti wondered about the prospect of doing nothing to the downtown area. While Dohrer noted he has no crystal ball, particularly where shifting retail is concerned, he said: "you will always be missing the boat."
Though people attending the workshops didn't favor a large, 4- or 5-story mixed-use development at a site like the Chase Block, a couple of the myriad designs on the table ran upward of $80 million. Whether by tax-increment financing or otherwise, sources obviously would be required to complement developers' initial investments.
Trustee Gina DeBoni wondered if the village's permanent fund would be viable, but Dohrer cautioned that "it's a limited and finite resource."
Earlier, he noted that when entities use a request for proposal (RFP) process to solicit bids for projects, "you get the best response when the community knows what they want."
He also said, "there's never going to be a consensus." On that note, the lone resident to address the situation Tuesday in public comment, Gerald Barry, believed there was "not a great clamor" for downtown development.
The next step, as Village Manager Matt Formica noted, was to bring the plans back to the board for adoption at its next meeting, July 20.
"I think it's about incorporating feedback into a set of tools that we can use to be ready for the addressing of any opportunities that do come up along the way, and to be a facilitator, as and when appropriate, of development and activity in some of these spark sites," said Village President Mike Jenny.
"That is, to me, very valuable in terms of incorporating all of this feedback."