West Chicago reschedules hearing on Cascade Drive-In reopening plan
West Chicago plan commissioners have moved a public hearing on the future of the Cascade Drive-In to November so the city and land owner can come to a resolution that would allow the shuttered theater to reopen.
City officials were in discussions with the attorney for the owner of the landmark site late into the afternoon Tuesday, hours before the plan commission was supposed to consider a zoning request for an "ozoner" trying to make a comeback.
"We've had discussions about some alternative solutions for the Cascade property, and I think there's a collective interest in facilitating the reopening of the theater," attorney Russell Whitaker told plan commissioners. "And we need to figure out how to make that happen."
The drive-in had been around since 1961, a suburban tradition for generations of audiences who rolled down their car windows for outdoor cinema.
"Our goal is to get the Cascade Drive-In renovated and opened to celebrate the 60th anniversary of its 1961 opening," Whitaker said in a statement. "In working with the city into this evening, we've identified an alternative solution that may allow us to resolve the technical zoning issues and accomplish that goal. We're going to take the next couple of weeks to explore that alternative and be back for the plan commission in early November."
Plan commissioners agreed to push the hearing to Nov. 4, as officials work out a new approach to the Cascade zoning request.
The 28-acre property currently is zoned for residential development. City planners last week said they wanted to see the land rezoned from "estate residential" to commercial.
"We're going to look at ways to extend legal non-comforming uses, which is a technical term for grandfathering uses," Community Development Director Tom Dabareiner said Wednesday.
The original Cascade proposal sought an amendment to city zoning code to allow drive-in theaters as a special use in the residential district.
"We don't have a redevelopment plan for the property right now," Whitaker said last week. "And so we don't think it makes sense to up-zone the property at this time."
In 2003, the drive-in site at North Avenue and Prince Crossing Road was part of 58 acres of land forcibly annexed into West Chicago by the city council. Properties brought into West Chicago by forced annexation are zoned by default under the city's most restrictive residential classification.
Jeff Kohlberg operated the theater for 30 years, until the property's previous owner declined to renew the lease in late 2018.
Kohlberg would run the theater again if the Cascade reopens. The only other drive-in in the Chicago area is in McHenry, though pop-up screenings have grown in popularity because of the pandemic.