Local voices: Glenview homeowners vs. their village's government

In the years after World War II, Glenview was a perfect place for modest-income families to buy modestly priced single-family homes. Park Manor and nearby neighborhoods as well as others were affordable. On quiet, safe streets away from heavy traffic, with good schools, reasons why people move to suburbs.

Those neighborhoods blossomed, and later developments of multifamily units had a modest density of units per acre. A new Glenview zoning code was developed in the 1960s with advice from the Louis Ancel firm, the best municipal lawyers in the business and now the Village Attorney firm.

Those early halcyon days in Glenview are now gone, threatened by a village board hellbent on overloading busy Glenview and Waukegan roads and downtown Glenview with heavy traffic and multifamily buildings and - by extension - changing the character of the Village. Its prize is the Drake Group redevelopment of the village-owned former Bess Hardware property.

Other developers expressed an interest, their full presentations never revealed to the public. The Drake Group proposal was accepted and began its journey to approval.

It began as a 72-unit, five-story high rise on just under one acre. The Plan Commission held hearings on what would be a planned development, not simpler rezoning that has guided growth, much of it based on the code that Ancel helped create. At every step, residents expressed their opposition at meetings of the Plan Commission, Appearance Commission, and Village Board. An online petition was signed by nearly 1,000 people opposing the project.

A resident called it "a 100-year mistake."

This is the most massive objection to any proposal in Glenview, including my 10 years as a Village Trustee. Yet the Drake plan moved forward, with the village in a public-private partnership. With a dangerous roll of the dice, the village leaders, in effect, led and nurtured a fait accompli.

The village board voted 4-2 in March to approve the development, following the Plan Commission 3-2 vote to recommend approval and Appearance Commission 3-2 vote to approve the design. Split Vote. Split Vote. Split Vote.

Glenview neighbor homeowners have sued to stop the development, an epic battle between government and its citizens at a time when city dwellers want to escape to the relative safety of quiet neighborhoods and good schools like Glenview. Developers seek to build citylike high-rises in North Shore villages like Glenview, my hometown for 56 years.

The lawsuit cites ways the village played loose with normal requirements and includes many citizen objections expressed during the long battle of people vs. their government.

• The Bess property was purchased by the village for $2.25 million in January 2017. It was sold to Drake for only $1.81 million, assuming the village can find a title company foolish enough insure the title now. The loss and expenses the village has assumed for the project will cost taxpayers an estimated $2.5 million in public money spent on a private project.

• The project ignores The Downtown Revitalization Plan recommended by an appointed, diverse citizens group. That called for 27 condominiums/four stories or 36 condominiums/five stories. Instead, trustees approved five stories, first-floor bakery, and 68 rental apartments likely to have 200 residents. Towering over the neighborhood, more dense, more traffic, more congestion. See the plan at glenview.il.us/business/Documents/DT-DowntownPlanIFinal.pdf

• The project has no setback on Glenview Road or Pine Street, the site's busy corner. Village trustees "donated" the public right of way on the south Glenview Road border to Drake, a free gift it would never dare give to a homeowner.

• Mature locust trees along that stretch of Glenview Road will be chopped down, replaced by saplings, a victim in a community that has been a Tree City U.S.A. since 1984. Kiss that award goodbye.

• It was not approved under normal Glenview codes and ordinances, but with standards "modified" and happily called an urban transit district. It may come as a surprise to residents that they have an urban area in their suburb.

• It creates safety hazards for neighbors and for children crossing the railroad tracks going to and from school and the library. Our Lady of Perpetual Help School is a block to the east. The Library is steps away west of the tracks. Amtrak passenger and freight trains zip by day and night on the site's west border; Metra runs passenger trains every day.

The court can't stop us now, the village and Ancel will tell your honor. We are demolishing the Bess building soon; next we will kill the beautiful locust trees, you just can't make us stop now, can you?

President James Patterson has been a vigorous supporter of Drake. His term expires in April. He has been a trustee and now president for eight years, the longest tenure of anyone in recent memory. Thanks for his service, but it is time to move on.

Terms of three trustees expire in April. Two are John Hinkamp and Karim Khoja, who voted for the project. Trustee Deborah Karton's term also expires. She voted "no" with Trustee Mary Cooper in the precedent shattering 4-2 split vote.

Residents who want to oppose the current leadership's slate in next April's election should start soon to begin the mission to interview and nominate residents who value homeowners more than developers. A good name for the ticket would be Glenview Homeowners Party.

• Charles Loebbaka has lived in Glenview since 1964 and served as a village trustee from 1973-83.