Glenview's downtown: Village president, planner talk development philosophy, resident input

Redeveloping downtown Glenview has weighed heavily on the minds of the village board and residents for the past several years.

Through the Glenview Connect process and recent downtown district code amendments, downtown development has drawn many diverse opinions.

Glenview's L-shaped downtown - along Glenview Road from Washington Street to just east of Waukegan Road; from Dewes Street to around Prairie Street; and along Waukegan Road up to Lake Avenue - is one of the most important aspects on the slate of Village President Mike Jenny, trustees, and village staff members.

The Herald recently had the opportunity for a remote interview on downtown development with Jenny and Jeff Brady, Glenview's director of Planning Services. Following is the first portion to be published from that interview. It has been edited for clarity.

Herald: What is the philosophy of the board toward development?

Mike Jenny: I think the philosophy of the board is to ultimately have a downtown that's a walkable, livable destination environment where people can go and shop and spend time - (a place) you want to go. In part, we're trying to execute the vision through the downtown code changes.

It's really one of the most important topics before the board. I know I've been talking about it for several years - responsible redevelopment and activation of the area in collaboration with public feedback, which was what Glenview Connect was all about. And I think just in terms of helping everybody align the vision and putting together a clear direction - rules of the road, if you will - for development along those lines is really going to help affect the vision that we all want to see.

H: What is your vision for the downtown area?

MJ: We want to put the building blocks in. We want it to be self-sustaining in terms of a commercial area. We want to have walkability, (make it) pedestrian-friendly. We want to have green space - there was a lot of discussion about the pocket parks and ability to utilize the river in a way that meets that vision.

In the next five, 10, 20 years I'd love to see all of these pieces in place that attract residents, attract visitors, attract commercial activity in keeping with the look and feel that we want for that particular area. I think that providing updated, thoughtful code, rules of the road - again, in keeping with robust public discussion and resident feedback - is the way to do it.

Jeff Brady: Through the Glenview Connect process and what was outlining the Downtown Strategic Plan there's a solid framework that was kind of outlaid in that plan that included short-, medium-, long-term goals, if you will. From a standpoint of what might the downtown look like in years to come, there's been funds that have been set aside for streetscape improvement for this coming year, which includes a lot more landscaping opportunities for outdoor dining, things of that nature.

Also as part of the framework for effectuating some change in the downtown the board will be later on this spring reviewing policies related to facade improvement and tenant improvement programs for business support on the basic level.

How can you spruce up a building facade, or is there an opportunity to kind of bridge that economic gap that might be existing to get a new tenant in a tenant space? For instance, it costs so much to improve a tenant space but the owner can only afford to do so much or to capture so much in rent so there's a gap. How might some of these programs bridge that? Those are kind of some short-term things.

As President Jenny mentioned, some of the long-term items include what redevelopment might bring to the downtown. One of the focus areas of the strategic plan was that entire block between the river and Church (Street), Glenview Road and Dewes (Street), for what they call the Chase Bank site. That was seen as the primary opportunity for properties that might be subject to change in the mid- to long-term, and what might happen in realizing the community's vision for downtown specifically on some of the redevelopments that might occur on that block. It also kind of outlines some of the framework that was included that the board is working toward in these short- and long-term opportunities.

When we were going through the Glenview Connect process they were looking at the spark sites; again, sites that had opportunity to change. From the community's feedback and what resulted and (what) we reflected in some of the recommendations, where the community didn't want to see significant redevelopment or feel the need for significant redevelopment on some blocks, they did see that they could be spruced up. (O) r there were some vacancies and that knowing some factors of those businesses not being able to find new tenants, what could help them out to Improve some of those?

It was kind of a smattering of a bunch of different things, with the landscaping improvements and streetscape improvements, with tenants and facade improvements and then ultimately some redevelopments of some sites.

H: What do you tell people who are concerned about building heights, or what has been termed "the canyon effect?"

MJ: I think there's some technical explanations we can fall back on in terms of the requirements for building articulations, stepbacks, setbacks, height restrictions. A lot of work went into preventing just that, the canyon effect.

JB: I think also, practically speaking, again the feedback from the community was they didn't see redevelopment happening across the entire downtown. When you go parcel by parcel there weren't 30 different plots of land that were going to be redeveloped all in a similar style or at a similar time frame.

A majority of the areas along Glenview Road either have been redeveloped or were desired to see in their current format, where there were the opportunities for those facade or tenant improvement opportunities.

In other words, there wasn't a desire or feedback from the public to see those properties be developed, and so far there hasn't been a desire by those property owners to redevelop, or for developers to come in and give them an offer that they can't refuse, based on the economic situation, to redevelop some of these parcels.

So I think this will happen over time, everything's going to be kind of a case-by-case basis, but as President Jenny was saying, there's enough technical requirements where the updated form-based code provides that clarity to represent the community characteristics that were desired.

(The code) also kind of prescribes for the development community the expectations for what the community wants to see. They'll develop their pro forma in what they can do on a site based on that. I think there's enough checks and balances, if you will, throughout the process to mitigate those concerns of the canyon effect.

Again, practically speaking, when you look at the sites that are potential opportunities they're scattered throughout (the downtown).