Skokie clears Carvana tower near Harms Woods

Despite a parade of public statements to the contrary, the ayes had it.

Thirty-two people, many with ties to Chicago Bird Collision Monitors or other environmental groups, spoke at Monday's Skokie Village Board meeting, where amended zoning and a site plan for a 14-story, 134-foot-tall glass Carvana tower was considered for a vacant 5-acre parcel across from Harms Woods Nature Preserve between Glenview and Skokie.

Speaking individually in 3-minute segments for an hour and 21 minutes, concluding by 11:29 p.m., 31 of those people stated their opposition to the project. One 44-year Skokie resident offered perhaps a tongue-in-cheek compromise of building a lot underground for the Arizona-based used-car dealership, with a park on the surface.

"The Carvana project would be worse than a squandered opportunity of a prime parcel adjacent to two high-valued developments (Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center, and Optima Old Orchard Woods) and across the street from a marvelous public natural resource. It risks significant denigration of the community," said Charlie Saxe, an 18-year Skokie resident and a member of the village's Sustainable Environmental Advisory Commission.

Twice, on Nov. 18 and on Jan. 6, the Skokie Plan Commission had approved the site plan for the Carvana "vending machine" at the vacant parking lot on the former Rand McNally campus, an address now listed as 9757 Woods Drive.

It had also recommended a zoning code amendment for auto and marine craft dealers within its OR Office Research District where the property lies.

Bret Sassenberg, senior director for real estate and development at Carvana - "the Amazon of cars," he called it Monday due to its online sales model - said the company had altered its proposal due to village requests on truck routes, delivery hours, hours of operation, lighting and more.

A key factor considering the site's location bordering Woods Drive east of Harms Woods, was bird strike mitigation including placing window markers on the clear, tempered glass tower up to the eighth tier, 63 feet, 10 inches high. The height of the markers also had been increased to satisfy the village.

Even on Monday, Trustee Edie Sue Sutker requested that the company turn off its internal lights on all four sides of the tower overnight during the two annual migratory bird periods, as opposed to maintaining interior lighting on the east side facing the Edens Expressway as had been part of the plan.

Sassenberg agreed on the spot.

"It's been a challenge to understand exactly what to do, other than do it all, which makes no sense economically or even for protection," Sassenberg said.

Asher Bronfeld, board president of potential next-door neighbor, Optima, whose 2,000 residents comprise 3% of Skokie's population, doubted Carvana's claim of a 10-year aggregate of $8.9 million in tax revenues.

"That money will never see Skokie," he said, producing a chart where he indicated 17% of Carvana sales revenues remain within the city of its location.

When their time came the citizens who packed the board room, some who brought signs opposing the tower, one wearing a hat fashioned into a flamingo, repeatedly decried the proposal as a "death sentence to birds" or a "gigantic billboard" or an "obelisk to capitalism."

"One of the existential threats that we all face in this time is what are we going to do to preserve the natural areas that are under threat? And I think by positioning commercial property such as this next to one of our valuable forests preserves that were very important to all of us and to all of our health, this is a curious precedent to set, especially in these times," said master naturalist volunteer Amy Lardner.

Such statements had a friend in Trustee James Johnson, who said 14 environmental groups, five science professors and 8 of 12 members of the Sustainable Environmental Advisory Commission were against the Carvana proposal. Johnson said Skokie resident Debra Shore, the Environmental Protection Agency's local administrator for Region 5, which includes Illinois, called the proposal "a blight on the landscape."

However, several trustees, such as Khem Khoeun, criticized Johnson for "play(ing) politics," "selectively choosing facts that fit his narrative," and deciding his stance before due diligence on the Carvana proposal had been done.

Skokie Mayor George Van Dusen joined four trustees in a pair of 5-1 votes approving both the zoning amendment and site plan.

One way or another, Sutker noted, this 5-acre spot would eventually be developed.

"I need to vote based on whether this is a reasonable land use and whether mitigations were put in place. I vote aye," she said.