River Forest’s village board last week signed off on a pact to redevelop Lake and Lathrop. More than five years in the making and hamstrung by a series of revolting developments — the economic collapse in real estate, a recalcitrant property owner who also contaminated the wider site with dry cleaning chemicals, the inconvenient end of a TIF — the deal was finally completed with Keystone Ventures, the favored, locally-owned developer.
Village President Cathy Adduci proclaimed it a “a cause for celebration,” and we will give her that deserved moment. We are more inclined to breathe a sigh of relief that this vital project finally has a signed pact, a timeline, and a future as the key to the gradual remaking of this center strip of Lake Street into River Forest’s very own downtown.