Revised One Winnetka Plans Receive Preliminary Approval

WINNETKA, IL — The One Winnetka mixed-use development passed a key hurdle this week, winning preliminary approval from a divided village council. The planned development at the corner of Elm Street and Lincoln Avenue was first proposed more than five years ago and has since been the subject of dozens of meetings of village boards and commissions and several revisions.

Trustees approved plans for the development Tuesday by a 3-2 vote, setting up a final vote on Oct. 16. Council members will consider final approval for the project in the form of a planned unit development agreement, zoning changes and a special use permit.

The project was given preliminary approval in January 2017, but developer David Trandel of Stonestreet Partners proposed several changes in December 2017 to cut costs and make the project "financially feasible," according to village staff.

Current plans call for a five-story building with a height of 59 feet. It would include nearly 30,000 square feet of street level commercial space, 355 parking spaces, 36 apartments, 15 condos and seven townhome units.

Trandel said the revisions to the plan saved about $5 million, Pioneer Press reported, with the current plan replacing parking garages with underground parking. And the developer told Crain's Chicago Business the project is about 2 ½ years behind where he expected and is now expected to be complete in the fourth quarter of 2020.

Village President Chris Rintz did not end up casting a tiebreaking vote, although he expressed support of the project – other than the use of poured concrete – pending future design reviews.

"It's no secret I was tantalized by the financial benefits this particular project could bring. Initially, being able to get a lot of public improvements done on somebody else's dime was important to me," Rintz said. He said there was little public appetite for spending taxpayer money on improvements to the village's downtown, nor was there support for establishing a tax increment financing district that could have aided it. Rintz said he felt as if he had inherited a "bag of lemons," with the project.

"I'm just trying to make lemonade with the lemons that were delivered to me from previous iterations of the project and previous leadership of the community," he said.

Trustees Scott Myers, John Swierk and Anne Wedner voted in favor of moving the project forward. Trustee Andy Cripe did not participate after he was asked to recuse himself due to work done by his law firm. Two trustees, Penny Lanphier and Robert Dearborn, opposed the project.

Lanphier questioned whether the public benefits offered by the developer were sufficient to justify granting exceptions to village code. She said the project should return to the Design Review Board. Lanphier said she opposed the previous iteration of the plan and felt like the latest version was "doubling down." The council, she said, should not feel "cornered" into approving the plan.

Dearborn said it seemed like the developer was asking for too many concessions in the latest proposal, which had $1 million less in public benefits than the previous approved version.

"In essence, Winnetka is being asked to make up for the where the market has left off economically on this project," Dearborn said. "I don't see why Winnetka should make up that difference, economically, if it creates a burden for our village."

Wedner, the newest member of the council and a supporter of plan, said the village has a real need for a multi-unit residential development and would solve a lot of issues for the future.

"I think that we get in our own way in Winnetka by demanding that something be perfect. Because it's not going to be perfect. Perfect is the enemy of possible. So is this possibility a great thing for the village? I'm going to go out there and say it is," she said. "I think we are suffering from a declining environment where we don't have enough people, we don't have enough energy and we don't have enough modern and up-to-date facilities for people to want to move their retail and other establishments."

Read more about One Winnetka from the Village of Winnetka »
Watch Oct. 2 Winnetka Village Council Oct. 2 meeting »

Related:

• Revisions To One Winnetka Plan To Be Reviewed Before Recommendation
• One Winnetka Project Gets Nod To Move Forward
• Developer Of One Winnetka Says Most Favor Project