Public Comments of Oct. 9, 2007
La Grange Plan Commission
Hearing on Proposal for La Grange Place

William Dobias, 141 N La Grange Rd

Here is the text of comments prepared by Mr. Dobias, from which he read in part during his address to the Plan Commission. It is not a verbatim transcript of the remarks he delivered.

Good evening. I am William Dobias. My wife and I are 30-year residents of La Grange. We lived in the Country Club section of La Grange before moving to our current home in the La Grange Tower two years ago.

I ask your indulgence because I have been elected to speak for the Condo Associatiuon of La Grange Tower and all 75 of our residents, rather than your having an endless line of people from our building address you. I will try to be brief, but I promised them that I would present all viewpoints to you.

The 1970 Comprehensive Plan served our village well. We appreciate you volunteering your efforts to develop wise programs under the new Comprehensive Plan.

When our family of six was growing and many times afterward, whenever we passed Waiola Park and turned from 47th Street toward our home on Stone Avenue, lined with large, mature trees along the park, my wife could never resist saying, “We’re really fortunate to be able to live in such a beautiful place.” Open Space - with trees and inherent beauty. When we moved to the La Grange Tower, with Gordon Park outside our windows we had stayed in that beautiful place.

All through the Zoning Code and the Comprehensive Plan for La Grange and even the Staff report you are considering now, the need for and importance of open space repeats over and over again. The lack of park, and hence, open space in La Grange is widely known.

In the Park District’s own Open Space Master Plan which was authored in 1994 by Thompson, Dyke and Associates, a park planning, landscape architecture and urban planning firm, this statement was written, and I quote,” Given the lack of adequate open space in the community, a priority is placed on updating existing facilities, renovating playgrounds...The success of this plan will be measured by the next generations...”

This open space master plan defined three kinds of parks in La Grange: Mini parks which are playgrounds or playlots; neighborhood parks of limited size like Waiola Park; and community parks like Sedgewick Park. The report assigns all three of these designations to the unique Gordon Park - a playground now closed because of poor maintenance, a community park with ball fields and other recreational needs that require more space and a neighborhood park which the Park District wants to give up.

The Park District is seeking to blunt criticism by repeating that they are not selling all of Gordon Park. But they are attempting to sell and you are being asked to rezone all of the playground and all of the neighborhood park within the entirety called Gordon Park as well as some of the recreation space in the park.

The Park District of La Grange has totally abandoned their mission and responsibility to help defend open space and so it falls to this Plan Commission to refuse to allow precious open space to be lost for future generations.

The neighborhood park in Gordon Park is a true treasure that perhaps few in La Grange appreciate. The first section of the Comprehensive Plan (The Future of La Grange) says it well when it says:

“We have invested in and safeguarded our education, recreation and open spaces.”

Some who are against the loss of the open space in Gordon Park cite the importance of trees to reduce water run-off, provide habitat,provide aesthetic value,have an impact on air quality and even on air temperature. Some need and truly enjoy the fresh air provided by open space

- a break from being entombed by vehicles and building walls. Our bird watchers tell me that the open space is one of two refuges in the entire Chicago area—here and in Hyde Park—for the timid Monk Parrot. (This is true - see me later for details). When the cicadas were all over the area, and gulls could be seen feasting when the cicadas fell in open places around Chicago, flocks of gulls who normally want to stay in open places were comfortable swooping into the trees in the neighborhood park of Gordon Park - feeling quite safe, as does the falcon who regularly visits the balcony of one of our residents. The loss of open space to development is a major problem in urban areas. The Resource Renewal Institute says this: “Faced with tight budgets, cities often look to surplus land sales as a means of generating revenue. Unfortunately, these “surplus” lands often include parkland that provides the community with valuable open space and recreational areas. Although the sale of parklands may serve short-term budget gaps, once parks are sold for commercial or residential development, the loss to the community is permanent. In times of tight budgets, community members should consider political and legal strategies for the protection of parkland, and at the same time, remind politicians that there are other, less drastic solutions to balancing city budgets.” We will remind the Village Board of that very point.

It was indicated to you at the September meeting that what would be done within the area of the remaining Gordon Park was not within your perview. However, I believe that it is. The developer is planning to dump the soil from all of the excavations in the development on the ball fields, requiring the drainage system to be redone, perhaps reconnecting to the retention vault for the water tower. Obviously this activity so close to the water tower raises questions about the guarantees to the safety of our water system. The builders’ comments have pretty much indicated that they will be doing the reconfiguration of the park. Since they have a vested interest in making a park that compliments their marketing, village oversight is crucial.

I will try to keep my other remarks organized to respond to issues raised in the Staff Report in the order that they appear there.

Item III, Comprehensive Plan Criteria refers to the Market Assessment prepared in March 2004 in conjunction with the Plan and its calling the YMCA building’s use of the area “inadequate”. What isn’t mentioned in the staff report is that the Market Assessment also indicated that La Grange could support an average of only 2025 new residential units per year or up to 250 units over a 10-year period, a number that the proposed development exceeds in one, fell swoop.

Our residents take exception to the assertion made further on Page 2 of the Staff Report that Density combined with mixed land use creates the most effective and successful transit-oriented development. While some of us are sure that all La Grange residents will be happy to see the corner of La Grange Road and Ogden Avenue developed, ideally this would be a retail only development, commensurate to the size of the property. We have no objection to some building, but this proposal is way too big. Some feel that there is no room for the row houses, even moved further to the east, feeling that they will degrade the whole of La Grange.

This concern about density gives rise to the great concerns for open space and the need for such space where buildings and people are densely placed and need relief.

The concept of density combined with mixed land use creating successful transit-oriented development is questionable. People’s transportation needs are defined by where they work more than by where they live. People in the Chicago Metropolitan area commute north, south and west to work, as Du Page County regrettably found when their north-south roads became seriously overburdened. Metra is obviously considering addressing this situation with their concept of commuter lines on the IHB right-ofway, an idea that may be long in coming given their current budget troubles. In La Grange, not so many people take the trains to work. The 2002 study by HTNB found that weekday boardings at the two La Grange Metra stations were 2352, out of a working population of more than 6000 in La Grange. These boardings included riders from many other towns, some at a distance from La Grange. Fewer than a third of La Grange working residents ride the Metra train each day and there is no reason to think that statistic will change.

The trend of development in the areas affected by the proposed development is already toward denser, more concentrated population—Beacon Place with over 100 residents and Plymouth Place with over 200 new, younger, more mobile residents who will soon lead to greater concerns about traffic. We already have very dense population immediately to our north. If we stop being parochial in our view of what the affected area is, there are almost 300 rental units already available in La Grange Park in the Homestead apartments.

The issues are not just ingress to the property and egress from it. Our area is already plagued with traffic delays as mentioned in the Comprehensive Plan. La Grange Road is backed up most of the day. We in our building must turn north out of our building and then head west through the village in order to go south because of the southbound tie-ups. Accidents occur frequently.

I’ve tried to convince the developers that traffic becomes their problem as well if they become our neighbor. One of our residents counted 30 16-wheel, over-the-road semi-trucks in a 15-minute period—trucks that do not belong going through town and have a great deal of difficulty turning in our residential area. When gravel trucks were banned from the middle of the village, they started to cause backups in the left-turn lane of southbound La Grange Road. They begin making right turns onto northbound La Grange Road at 3:00 am.

We have yet to see what affect Plymouth Place will have on all of this traffic congestion. Beacon Place residents are already upset with the traffic situation. After parking, people questioned on the street in 2003 indicated traffic as being their second greatest dislike when coming to La Grange. And the situation has gotten worse.

We can only hope that Metra will at some time in the future move the commuter station further east as they have discussed, freeing La Grange Road from commuter interruptions in traffic.

With trucks that don’t belong on our streets and speeding on the rise, where are the police? Our police chief was quoted several years ago saying that his department could not effectively control the truck traffic. Will they really be able to cope with the increased challenges of the proposed development?

When it was illegal to dodge the westbound traffic light on Ogden Avenue at La Grange Road by cutting through the YMCA parking lot, we still saw much traffic on Shawmut Avenue that greatly jeopardized our safety when turning in or out of our building. Will there be any way to control the drivers who will legally use Locust and Shawmut in the new plan from doing the same thing in greater numbers? I really don’t think speed bumps will do it. How about not connecting Shawmut and Locust and letting drivers cutting through have to go through the parking lots?

One of our residents, before we realized why the proposed pedestrian bridge over Ogden Avenue was so far east, wondered if placing it so it would connect between the new retail building on the NE corner and the Corner Bakery wouldn’t be a great boon to shoppers between the two developments wanting to safely cross Ogden Avenue.

Other questions - will our already taxed electrical grid stand the increased activity from the proposed development as well as from the new Plymouth Place?

How big and massive will these buildings really be? Mr. Aronson said that they will only be 4 or 5 stories tall, but with the 9½-foot ceilings that he proudly described, five floors of these buildings will equal 6 stories of our building. And the proposed buildings have roofs that easily look to be two stories tall. How tall - As big as eight story buildings?

Will excess rain runoff cause greater flooding problems in north La Grange where the problem is already bad, or in our garage?

In the Special Use Standards, page 7, the Staff Report speaks to the need for diverse housing and the contribution the proposed development will make because of its rental housing. However, the developer has openly and publicly indicated his intention to sell these units as condos as soon as the market allows—and La Grange will wind up with no new rental apartments. When the owners in such a large condo complex cannot sell, what we will wind up with are perhaps 40 percent of the units being rented out by absentee landlords who do not care what is being done to or in their units by whom, as long as they collect the rent and hold down their costs of maintenance. Imagine—130 absentee landlords in less than a square city block, a worse nightmare than Chicago’s absentee landlords.

On page 10, under Considerations it is indicated that the Commission should consider alternate locations. We must ask - how about retail only at the proposed site with rental properties in the West End section that needs development?

In considering the requested waiver for resident parking spaces, please consider the dilemma of the Homestead Apartments where the influx of young professionals who have replaced the widows and spinsters on Social Security have two cars in each of their households and there is a severe problem in trying to provide them all with off-the-street parking. The request for the proposed development is far below the parking allowance given to Beacon Place and is too low. Perhaps the buildings should be limited to one less floor with attendant improvements all around.

In fact, why would the Village make as many exceptions to its zoning rules as are being requested? Shouldn’t the developer be held to building within the codes and standards of our community?

And finally, what future problem is created if the all property is zoned C3? Will a future owner of the property want to convert it to a shopping mall if malls fall into favor again? As nice as many seem to think that Atlantic Realty Partners are, their past behavior in places like The Reserve at Stone Mountain in the Atlanta area and Doral Pointe in Miami suggest that 5 years after building La Grange Place they will put the development up for sale and leave. They have large money and foreign capital sources to keep happy.

Thank you for your efforts here and for your time and your consideration. We hope that you will find in favor of the quality of life of La Grange’s residents—current and future—when deciding on this proposal.

Mr. Dobias is the publisher of a Web site, savelagrangeparkspace.com, where he has launched a petition drive to gather signatures of residents opposed to the sale of any land within Gordon Park.