As Skokie continues efforts to enliven its downtown, a developer is asking the village for approval to build a five-story mixed-use building on a vacant lot near the CTA Yellow Line “L” train’s Oakton Street station. If approved, it will be in line with the village’s vision for more housing near the Oakton station and the Illinois Science + Technology Park, or as the village designates it, the The Swift District.
The village’s Appearance Commission approved the 20-unit apartment complex with commercial space on its first floor at 8101 Skokie Blvd. on Jan. 7. The Plan Commission approved the development in November, and the Village Board will get a chance to vote on it at a board meeting in February, according to the village’s Communication’s Manager Meredith Gioia.
The development will have underground parking with 20 spaces for the building’s residents, loading bays with an entrance facing the alley for deliveries, and one of the units will be rented at a rate considered affordable for someone earning 100% of the Chicago-Naperville-Joliet Area Median Income, as designated by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
At the Plan Commission’s meeting, a village employee said the Northbrook-based development group that applied for the approval did so before the village adopted its affordable housing ordinance. Had the developer applied after the ordinance was in effect, they would have been required to make the single unit affordable to a renter earning 60% of the area’s median income.
The 20 apartments are all three-bedroom, two-bath units, per the developer’s application to the village.
Some of the village documents describe the proposed building as 4750 Keeney Street, which Brian Augustine, zoning administrator and permit supervisor, said would be used as the address for the residential portion. The commercial spaces are likely to use the 8101 Skokie Boulevard address.
Per village documents, the Swift District is named after the historic name of the CTA Yellow Line, the Skokie Swift. “The Swift District is envisioned to transition what were formally single-story, single-use commercial properties into mid-rise, mixed-use buildings that leverage the proximity to the train station, Skokie’s revitalized downtown and the adjacent Illinois Science and Technology Park,” village documents state.
Additional developments in the district include a five-story mixed-use development with 56 apartments at 8047 Skokie Boulevard and a five-story mixed-use development with 66 apartments at 8201 Skokie Boulevard.
