The Skokie Village Board gave tentative approval at its Oct. 8 meeting for developers to build hundreds of luxury apartments across three buildings at the upscale Westfield Old Orchard Shopping Center.
The first phase of construction would create 425 apartments between two mixed-use buildings, one five stories tall and one seven stories tall. The second construction phase would be for an additional seven-story building that could be used for more apartments or a hotel, said Stephen Fluhr, Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield’s senior vice president of development.
The Village Board will still need to vote on final approval at a second reading of the development proposal at its Oct. 21 board meeting.The Board approved the first reading in a 6-1 vote.
The additions to the mall were met with criticism by an affordable housing group, which blasted the Village Board for approving plans they saw as having too few affordable apartments.
The first phase would put two buildings in the area of the former Bloomingdale’s retail space in the northwest part of the mall, south of Old Orchard Road and east of Lavergne Avenue. The developers’ intention is to create a new neighborhood complete with parks, restaurants and spaces for concerts and farmers markets, according to Fluhr. The development is a partnership with the mall’s owner URW and Focus, a development group that is also in the process of building apartments near malls in Vernon Hills and Aurora.
In May, the village board approved an affordable housing ordinance on a 4-3 vote. The ordinance requires real estate developers proposing more than 150 apartments to make 7% of all dwelling units affordable to renters who earn between 60% and 80% of the area’s median income.
Households with two people earning between 60% and 80% of the area’s median income would earn approximately between $54,000 and $72,000. A family of four would need to earn between $63,000 and $90,000 to be in the same bracket, per the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development.
However, the development project did not have to comply with the ordinance because the developers submitted their plans to the village in February before the housing ordinance was established, according to previous reporting.
Vic Howell, the vice president of development for Focus, said the development was able to carve out 3.5% of its apartments to be rented at affordable prices, and did so upon hearing from community members who were interested in it. When Trustee James Johnson asked if the development could add more affordable units, Howell said it would be economically unfeasible.
Johnson made a motion that would require the development to double its affordable housing units, but did not receive any support from the Village Board to summon a vote.
Mayor George Van Dusen cautioned that it could be unlawful of the Village Board to reject the redevelopment plan on the merits that it does not follow the village’s affordable housing ordinance, because the ordinance does not apply to it.
“If we turn down this project because we don’t agree with the affordable housing component, it’s not that Westfield can walk away. Westfield can sue us, and we will lose… because you cannot compel a petitioner to comply with something that is not in law,” Van Dusen said.
“They (the developers) politely skirted it and didn’t say it. But they are not legally bound to have a single unit of affordable housing,” Van Dusen said.
Van Dusen also challenged the notion that an affordable housing ordinance could increase the affordable housing stock in the village, even though he voted in favor of implementing it in May.
“Inclusionary zoning is not a magic wand,” he said, before giving credit to Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson’s efforts in approving major residential developments on LaSalle Street that only came after the city was able to offer over $1 billion in incentives.
“It’s not as simple as you’re going to pass an ordinance and you’re going to make these developers adhere to it,” Van Dusen said.
Trustee James Johnson also accused the village of being too helpful in approving the redevelopment project when the village board met with URW staff before the plans were approved by the Plan Commission in August. Johnson said the representatives were lobbyists, to which Village Manager John Lockerby said the representatives were from URW and Focus, and not lobbyists.
Fluhr said URW’s investment in financing the construction of the mixed-use buildings was incentivized by the Village Board’s approval of a special business district tax, which tacked on for shoppers a 1% sales tax for purchases at Old Orchard. It was a controversial move then, because the village had to designate the mall as being blighted, despite the mall having luxury stores as tenants.
Per previous reporting, URW can only use the funds from the tax on rehabs and upgrades to the mall’s existing infrastructure.
“To be clear, these funds are not being used for anything related to the mixed-use. But what it did do was allow me to go back and sell this investment vision to my executive leadership in Europe, so they could make the decision to make an investment decision here in Skokie, instead of Czechoslovakia, instead of Paris, instead of Los Angeles, instead of Maryland… because they see Skokie’s shared desire to keep Old Orchard vibrant,” Fluhr said.
Before the village board meeting, about 25 members of the grassroots organization Skokie Neighbors for Housing Justice held a short rally where they prepared their members for the meeting and voiced their demands for the mall’s development to include more affordable housing. Founder Gail Schechter said their official demand was for the development to have 15% of its apartments rented out at affordable prices, which she said is the typical national standard for municipalities to demand from developers.
“We’ve got close to 15,000 jobs in the village; at this point, less than 9% of the workforce lives here,” Schechter said.
Members of the Skokie Neighbors for Housing Justice group also blasted the village board during public comment.
“Considering all Skokie has given to Westfield specifically, we should be at least getting 15% (affordable housing units), but we’re not even asking them to do what we require on the (affordable housing) ordinance that sat and did nothing for 18 months,” resident Kimberly Polka said.
“When I hear that 3.5% (of affordable housing) is what works with the existing financing, it sounds like that’s what they were able to incorporate under their existing model; it’s within their margin of error,” said resident Matt Jarvis. “But you, the board, have the power to ask for more. If they (the developers) want to walk away from this development, we are happy with the status quo,” he said.
Some of the public commenters were excited to see the influx of new retail space and residential space. Howard Meyer, the CEO and president of the Skokie Chamber of Commerce and Industry said “This plan is exciting and visionary for the community’s future and the future generations of Skokie residents, including residents and visitors of the entire North Shore.”
