River Forest isn’t likely to see development at Lake and Lathrop any time in the near future. After meeting with the property developer, Tim Hague, of Keystone Ventures, Village Administrator Eric Palm and Trustee Susan Conti said there’s still not much progress to report.
The corner is currently home to a number of small businesses and empty storefronts, including the former Annie’s Beef, which closed earlier this year. Under Hague’s proposal, the property would be transformed into residential condominiums, with retail space remaining along the street.
But the poor economy has delayed that plan indefinitely. Palm and Conti shared the details of their meeting with Hague at a meeting of the Planning and Development Committee Monday night.
“There’s not a lot to say,” said Palm. “There’s really no progress, I would say, at this point.
Because the bulk of the project is residential, and the housing economy continues to struggle, the developers and owners are left without many options. “The reality is for someone like Mr. Hague and the people he represents, there are significant costs,” Palm said.
“[Hague] said the residential market is worse now than it was a year ago,” added Conti.
This leaves a big question mark for the tenants currently occupying the commercial storefronts, and several committee members suggested they be brought into the conversation.
Trustee Colleen Horrigan said it will be tough to get existing tenants to decide to re-sign leases, and even harder to get new tenants to sign on. And though it’s up to the property owners to work out those details with tenants, Conti said it wouldn’t hurt for the village to speak up.
“Maybe we need to be in communication with some of those tenants so they don’t think the village is going to do something tomorrow, or this year,” she said.
Committee member Catherine Adduci said the tenants should be discussing this among themselves. “I’d like to see the owner and tenants work something out.”
“It is a confusing situation because even if they come to an agreement, it’s going to take some time to decide again how to proceed in this economic climate,” Conti said.
At the village board meeting, which followed the Planning and Development Committee meeting, members of the River Forest Historic Preservation Commission asked the board for guidance in their bid to tighten an ordinance that protects historically or architecturally significant properties from demolition. A public meeting to discuss the issue was scheduled for early February but was cancelled due to the massive snowstorm, and has not yet been rescheduled.
At the board meeting, several community members and board members criticized the current ordinance for its vague wording.
“The issue I have with what’s in there is it’s quite flexible,” said Trustee Jim Winikates said, adding that under the current guidelines, a large number of houses in River Forest could be deemed significant.
Two River Forest residents took issue with the fact that a current list of properties considered significant, and therefore prohibited from demolition, gives no indication of the reasoning behind the characterizations.
“I really feel there needs to be clarification about why homes are on the list and why homes are not on the list,” said Carla Graham White.
Arthur Goldberg said homeowners sometimes suffer from having their houses designated as significant, especially in terms of insurance costs.
But Paul Harding denied that claim. As the owner of a house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, he said that in spite of being subject to even more stringent restrictions than those specified in the ordinance, “We’ve never encountered the problems alluded to. From personal experience, I would refute what that other individual said.”
Several board members suggested that the guidelines should include more specific criteria, such as homes built by a particular architect or those built before a certain date. But Historic Preservation Commission Chairman David Franek said things can get muddled when the criteria gets too specific.
Franek said he has studied other, similar ordinances from across the country, and almost all of them give the commission discretion in deciding what houses fit into the category of historically or architecturally significant.
Village President John Rigas said the board initially suggested the commission hold a public hearing to discuss these very issues. Either way, he said, nothing could be decided that night.
“I think ultimately what we’re looking for is a public discussion,” said Franek. He added that the current policy, which allows only 45 days for the commission to review any demolition applications, runs the risk of allowing the demolition of significant homes. “We’re looking to raise awareness,” he said.