Plan Commission Recommends Albion Development Despite Complaints

HIGHLAND PARK, IL — The Plan and Design Commission Tuesday approved plans for Albion at Highland Park, a proposed five-story, 171-unit residential development bordering Sunset Woods Park. Commissioners voted 5-0 to send the plans on to the City Council despite opposition from members of the community in attendance and those who have petitioned for the project to be scaled down.

The 2.6-acre site in the 1800 block of Green Bay Road is currently occupied by the Karger Center. The City Council put it up for sale for $3.5 million in May 2017 and approved an offer in January from a joint venture of developer Albion Residential and homebuilders the Jacobs Companies to buy the property for $3.76 million.

The terms of the deal call for the building to be under 63 feet and include 171 units. Prior to granting preliminary approval to the planned development, commissioners emphasized they had no authority to amend those restrictions.

Liza McElroy, executive director of the Park District of Highland Park, provided a letter which was read into the record. She said the park board of commissioners has reviewed the project at two meetings, except for Commissioner Cal Bernstein, who has recused himself because he is representing Albion.

"The Park District is not taking a stand on the overall project," McElroy wrote. "However, the Park District of Highland Park wishes to state for the record that after reviewing all of the plans it is our opinion that the Albion project as currently set forth will have no impact on the usage of Sunset Woods Park nor any Park District programming at the site."

Before the vote, more than a dozen residents asked the commission not to grant preliminary approval to the plan until a variety of issues were addressed.

Bivan Kischer, who lives to the south of the planned development, said the mass and density of the building is not in the character of the neighborhood or town.

"Regardless of the zoning, regardless of anything else, planned development has to meet that standard," Kischer said. "It isn't harmonious with the neighborhood or Sunset Woods Park. It has a negative impact on sunlight, air movement, as well as parking for park district events." He questioned the inclusion of an additional parking lot to calculate the allowable density of the project (the "buildable area" of the lot appears includes a "stem" that juts out around the North Shore Health Center) Kischer said there needed to be more time spent evaluating whether the plans warrant 171 units and meet the requirements for a planned unit development.

"Protecting the nature and the ecosystems of the park, that's paramount to us. That's why we we live there. That's why we're citizens of Highland Park. We live next to the park because we chose to," Kischer said. He said neighbors of the site had property rights that would be impacted by having a neighboring apartment building casting a shadow on one's house nine months of the year and questioned why the city and park district had no qualms with losing more than 130 public parking spots.

Adam Pfeffer, who lives west of the park, said he was confused by mixed messages on whether the plan and design commission had the legal authority to review the development's height and density. He said the public, which had invested heavily in philanthropic efforts to improve the park over many years, needed more time to get up to speed on the intricacies of the plan.

"I'm not a planner by trade but, damn, I feel like one now," Pfeffer said, telling the developers they were asking for a lot for a location that had historically served the public good. "You guys are smart folks, you're asking for a tremendous amount, there's a huge give you're asking of our city." He said anything build at the site would need to meet the requirements of a planned unit development.

"What they want is an awesome view of the park, what they want is a massively wide unit. What they want is an amenities deck. What they want is a dog grooming room, a clubhouse. It is enormous." Pfeffer said the developers were asking for several significant concessions from the public, including eliminating a setback for the fifth floor, 269 feet of front yard relief and 20 feet in the back, as well as 20 fewer parking spaces that required. "The public good is what I'm interested in. I don't begrudge them building anything here, I think it should be built in the size and scope that allows harmony in the park and people to enjoy the park, and doesn't necessarily impact how people get in and out of the park."

Meno Passini, said he was not a neighbor to the site but his family has been in Highland Park for more than 90 years, warned the development would diminish the community's brand and legacy and its potential public benefit was overstated.

"It's been wedged into this lot between the other buildings and the homes," Passini said, warning nearby homes would soon be living in the equivalent of a valley. "This is poor city planning to begin with...this one needs to be scaled back so that in the future it doesn't become a white elephant," he said.

"Something needs to be built there, but this is completely out of scale, the process was done wrong, it's public property it should have been handled more like the Highland Park Theater," he said. "Where different proposals came in, and the community got to look online and see what they like."

Jill Goldstein said she normally does not follow Highland Park developments, choosing to trust her representatives to maintain the character of the town.

"So I was very surprised to see a project of this size right in the center of our town that promotes urban sprawl. It reminds me more of a Schaumburg, an Oak Brook, not the character of our town," Goldstein said. She expressed skepticism about the studies about noise and traffic presented by the developers.

"I admire the towns that are building more public space in their city centers," Goldstein said. "And right now Highland Park is about to celebrate its 150th anniversary and I think it would be awful to celebrate this anniversary by destroying these iconic buildings and land that was intended for public use."

Marc Cornfield, a Highland Park resident and former middle school science teacher who works in real estate, said he supported the idea of a new building development in the city. Any additional traffic would be good for the town, he said, but he shared some of the concerns of those calling for the plan to be scaled down.

Lawrence Dunlap said the way the developers were calculating the buildable area using a weighted lot was not supported in city code. He said city planners from other communities were not familiar with any similar methods of calculation. (City Planner Andy Cross said the calculation was the "most transparent" way to calculate the irregularly shaped lot.) He said he supported the proposal for a 'green' roof design on the building with environmental benefits.

Katie Drucker, who lives west of the park, said the noise disturbance from the courtyard and light pollution from the development would disturb the neighborhood's tranquil peace and quiet.

"In my opinion, the developers are using fancy language and backwards jargon to 'upsell' all the accommodations they're making, while asking for variances for things you, the Plan and Design Commission, can decline," Drucker said. "I would ask that the committee and others keep in mind that any leniency given here opens the door for future developments as well."

"I'm having a very difficult time seeing how the pros for this project outweigh the cons for our community," she said. "The city does not yet need another large-scale development, certainly not one that is on the doorstep of what I believe to be one of Highland Park's true treasures, Sunset Woods Park. Just last year, McGovern House was completed, now an entire row of homes has been bulldozed further west on Central for probably another development and those are all within minutes of this site." The prospect of the development made her nauseous, she said, and would be a vast disservice to the community.

Peter Mordini, a neighbor to the north of the development, said he had been supportive of the plan when when Bernstein, representing the developers, assured him the building would be built without any variances.

"We've got four variances coming around here now. What public benefit does that have to us? Hanging some art? The sacrifice of a whole neighborhood, the park, congestion. I do believe they will still profit immensely with four stories. They are smart people and good designers. I've seen the packets, they're experts," Mordini said. Neighbors were told the building would be no more than 65 feet at any point. "They never told us that they're going to put a 65-foot building on a pedestal that's 10.5 feet tall that raises the building to six stories." Built on a slope, the proposed building rises 73.5 feet above the park.

"We just hope the city, with these financial promises that if they build so many units they'll get more money. But you know what? Money isn't everything. It's the quality of life for the public, the people from Highland Park and the park," Mordini said. "That's what brings people to Highland Park, it's the tranquility and serenity. Health is everything. "

Jenny Dart said she has lived in the neighborhood for 25 years and was saddened to think of what the community was giving up.

"I think we're just diminishing what is a great neighborhood. I want it to stay a great neighborhood. I want it to stay a vibrant downtown," Dart said. "I don't think it's going to make the community more vibrant, I think its going to take it away. I do think that something could be built that could be enhancing but definitely I don't think this is it."

Jeff Gilbert, a volunteer EMT who lives just west of the park, said his training with law enforcement and the Illinois Medical Emergency Response Team gave him a different perspective on the safety implications of the project.

"My concern here is building a large structure adjacent to a park creates, in my mind, a very dangerous situation. The question is: 'What do you do if there's an active shooter that's on the fifth floor of this building?'" Gilbert said. He had he had experienced preparation for such a possibility while managing the emergency medical response in the final mile of the Chicago Marathon. "There's three things you do in an active shooter environment. The first thing you do is run, the second thing you do is hide and the third thing you do is fight." The open field made any of those options difficult, he said, especially for young children or crowded events like the city's Fourth of July celebrations.

"They could do a severe amount of damage and we would be completely sitting ducks," Gilbert said, recommending the commission get some professional safety evaluation of the site. Such structures are not build next to schools, and Highland Park has shown its commitment to a safe community by taking its ban on assault-style weapons to the U.S. Supreme Court, he said. "It would be a terrible irony if something were to happen because we built a structure so close to where children hang out."

Margaux Nair, who lives beside Sunset Woods park, said she was very concerned about the proximity of the development to the park and its environmental impact.

"I understand that the park district is not particularly concerned, but I would like to know why they're not concerned," Nair said, citing the impact of the building's shadow on the old trees in the area. "We are looking at an area that has a lot of native trees and also native plants." She said the area is also used for nesting grounds for hawks, owls and ospreys that could be disturbed by the project.

"I'm also somewhat concerned about the drainage. This park has a lot of flooding, and I don't know if the building will cause any sort of problem with increasing the harm in the flooding there, but that's something I would like to see looked at in greater detail," Nair said. "Before we end up with a situation that is unfixable and is harming a very valuable resource for our community and for the environment of the town as a whole."

Brent Ross, a resident of northeast Highland Park, said, under city code, the site should be considered a "lot in depth." He questioned the way the lot width had been calculated, pointing out the city would never grant the same concessions for a normal residential property.

Sam Shepard, who started an online petition to downsize the size of the development that had collected than 400 signatories as of Thursday morning, asked the board to include a recommendation or its own findings of fact to investigate whether the development should be limited to four stories.

Dec. 16 meeting of the Highland Park Plan and Design Commission (Video)

Staff report and meeting materials on the Albion at Highland Park planned development (p. 39)

Bernstein, representing the developers, said the plan has already incorporated changes to address many concerns from residents, including expanding the setback from single-family homes on the north side of the site to 38 feet.

"The relief that we're requesting is minor and basically administrative," Bernstein said. He said the development met parking requirements and pointed out if Sunset Woods Park was zoned for public activity like other local parks instead of as a residential area, it would not require any setback at all.

"The public benefits that we are offering is far in excess of the relief we are requesting," he said, including $20,000 for water tower restoration, installation of a pedestrian signal at Green Bay Road, waiving move-in fees for the top 10 local employers, making it a green building, public art and service for neighboring sites.

Bernstein said the developers have worked with Sunset Foods to provide two ways of getting in and out of the site, Highland Park city staff to move the entrance and increase pedestrian safety, the Lake County Health Center to provide parking and with the neighbors to the north to address their concerns.

"We have done what the planned unit development process has asked us to do," he said.

Commissioner Elaine Waxman said the Plan and Design Commission was unable to second-guess the deal the City Council made with the developers, which includes 171 units and cannot be taller than 65 feet.

"This commission has no authority whatsoever to reduce the height of this building. We hear you, we hear exactly what you are saying, but we are limited in what we can do here," Waxman said.

Commissioner Adam Glazer said he appreciated the concerns of neighbors, but noted the impact on the neighborhood would be essentially the same if the builders proceeded without permission from the plan commission.

"The way the system is presented to us, the way this comes to us, a building very close to what's being presented tonight could be built without asking the plan commission for any relief," Glazer said, describing the developer's approach as reasonable and conciliatory to the community and explaining his support for the petition. "It'd be a different story if I had any input in what the appropriate size of a building would be in this location, but I don't feel I do."

Related:

• Luxury Rental Development Plans For Karger Center Revealed
• Highland Park Gets Bid To Build 171 Units At Karger Center
• Karger Center Listed For Sale At $3.5 Million

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