Jenny optimistic in first state of Glenview address

Looking comfortable at the podium at the Glenview Public Library, Glenview Village Board President Mike Jenny on Nov. 4 opened his State of the Village address optimistically.

"As I stand here this morning, ladies and gentlemen, the state of your village is strong," he said.

That is despite entering 2021 "with a great deal of uncertainty," Jenny said, due to the COVID-19 pandemic that will reap Glenview $6.4 million in American Rescue Plan Act funding. The eventual beneficiaries of that support, Jenny later said in response to a question from Thursday's audience, will be determined through "detailed policy discussion."

They're expected to go to a wider array of businesses after Glenview restaurants hammered by the pandemic were provided municipal aid under former Village President Jim Patterson, who listened to Jenny's address from the back row.

Next year's speech might include more momentous items produced by events before and since the former trustee became board president in the April consolidated election.

Jenny's unopposed path to the village presidency has been one of few certainties.

Earning only brief mention was the since-leveled Bess Hardware property, 1850 Glenview Road, that remains under agreement with The Drake Group for a 68-unit mixed-use development.

Unmentioned among areas for potential redevelopment - Jenny did note the Signode and Pearson Education properties, neither of which he said had drawn applications - was the barren 8.3-acre Willow-Pfingsten property.

Driven by neighbor opposition and a since-withdrawn lawsuit, last spring a proposed business development first was dismissed by the Plan Commission and then by the village board.

As the village considers adjusting industrial use regulations as the Glenview New Development Committee reviews form-based building code amendments, development is certainly on the table.

The New Development Committee, Jenny specified, joins the Development Adjustments Committee after a 2021 ordinance consolidated four committees into two with the goal of simplifying application and approval processes.

Then there was the "Glenview Connect" process that took about a year to execute. The updated downtown codes suggested by the plan are anticipated to be finalized in January, Jenny said.

"Even before COVID, the village board recognized the need to be proactive, adapt to market conditions and protect the economic vitality of the village. COVID, of course, reinforced that need. We created the Economic Development Strategic Plan to recruit and retain businesses, particularly in our downtown area," he said.

While the sale of the Allstate campus wasn't stated, Jenny highlighted the recent announcement that the village seeks to dissolve The Glen TIF by the end of 2021, a year before its intended departure.

Jenny said the closing of this tax increment financing district, which helped the 1,360-acre former Glenview Naval Air Station gain 5,500 people, about 2 million square feet of commercial use and increase its equalized assessed evaluation from $26.8 million at the TIF's outset in 1998 to $561 million in 2021, will require no increase in taxes.

"Simply a reallocation" to taxing districts, Jenny said.

He said Glenview has received Moody's highest rating, Aaa, for 31 straight years and is among 13 Illinois communities to have earned that rating.

He highlighted the Pine Street river bank stabilization project and the recent consideration of a new Big Bowl restaurant in The Glen. He said the 2022 Capital Improvement Plan budget of $29.8 million would include a drainage project for the Tall Trees subdivision, and the widening of Chestnut Avenue from Lehigh Avenue to Waukegan Road.

And, a proposal discussed Nov. 3 at the Development Adjustments meeting - a "traffic circle," or roundabout, at the entrance to the Costco at Patriot Boulevard. That project is tentatively proposed for 2022.

Leading up to the April 2021 consolidated election, a supposed lack of transparency drew fire from opponents of the Unite Glenview platform, which eventually produced new trustees Gina DiBoni, Tim Doron and Adam Sidoti. Jenny later appointed Jim Bland to fill his vacant trustee seat.

To deal with this issue, the village debuted a Community Engagement Plan that included the hiring of a full-time Community Engagement manager, David Just, to succeed the retired Lynne Stiefel, who had been employed part-time.

In her own conclusive address, Sue Swaringen, president of the League of Women Voters of Glenview-Glencoe, a host of the State of the Village, lauded this and other efforts in a time of "serious erosion" of trust in government.

Still, she sought more "real give and take" between officials and residents, decrying the paltry 16% voter turnout in 2021, which actually doubled 2019 turnout, she said.

Her "call to action" was for residents to give more direction - such as its drive to keep Glenview Fire Station 13 open - and for government to be more responsive, accessible and transparent.

"More of this kind of interaction is necessary," Swaringen said.