A divided crowd packed Village Hall in Skokie for hours at Tuesday’s Board meeting, trading impassioned, and at times contentious, remarks to sway trustees’ minds over the proposed site plans for 4600 Main Street, a 68-townhome development proposed for the site of the shuttered Arie Crown Hebrew Day School.
But when the heated debate came to an end, trustees voted 5-2 in favor of the site plan, with Trustee Lissa Levy and Trustee Gail Schechter dissenting. The plan will now move forward to a draft ordinance, expected to be presented to the Board for approval at a future meeting.
The proposed one-lot planned development, spearheaded by Chicago-based real estate firm Fulton Street Companies, is expected to include 24 two-bedroom and 44 three-bedroom units, all with two-car garages. The plan commission has allocated 158 total parking spaces.
The vacant lot is still under the ownership of the Arie Crown Hebrew Day School, but the elementary school has agreed to sell the land if the proposed townhome development is approved, according to village officials. Arie Crown relocated to 7787 Gross Point Road in May 2024.
Skokie Mayor Ann Tennes addressed the Board with sympathy following the vote, acknowledging that it was a “tough decision” but that the village would “work with the developer to make sure that the process is as painless as it can be.”
“We know construction is messy and cumbersome, but we will do our best to stay on top, and I have every faith the developer will indeed, from the start, be a good neighbor,” Tennes said.
“There is work to be done to make sure that we are able to accomplish the goals that we want to for our community,” Tennes added. “So again, I’m grateful to all of you for your opinions, your thoughtful approach to this matter.”
Several residents who spoke during the public comment session said they were concerned over the development’s density and the potential traffic congestion it may bring to Main Street and surrounding residential roads. Increased vehicle volume with limited parking could strain an already busy intersection, some residents argued, and also pose a safety risk for children and families.
Skokie resident Tom Whitaker was the first speaker to address the Board in opposition.
Whitaker, who lives on the corner of Bobolink and Kilpatrick Avenue, said he grew accustomed to living next to the former school and rarely had complaints. “These kids and their Nutella containers can get messy, but we were always good neighbors in terms of traffic,” he said.
“I would offer that school is only in session nine months a year. My neighbors at that school were not there on weekends, they had various religious holidays that they observed,” Whitaker said. “So the amount of time when there was heavy traffic was a very fixed period of time… 158 cars added into one square block in my neighborhood is pretty concerning to me, and that’s before Amazon deliveries, FedEx, Door Dash. I just feel like there’s going to be a more constant flow of traffic.”
Elm Terrace resident Sarah Franks, who identified herself as an employee of the Evanston Health and Human Services Department, seconded Whitaker’s views.
“People understand when a space is being pushed beyond its safe capacity,” Franks said. “More units mean more vehicles, more traffic, more risk to pedestrians and children playing… more noise, more waste and greater strain on infrastructure that was never designed for this level of density.”
Village Planning Manager Kate Portillo addressed the Board earlier in the session to clarify the project’s sustainability efforts, adding that the development plan includes four below ground storm water chamber detention systems, along with unfenced open green space on the northeast and northwest sides of the property. The design plan also includes a central open green space amenity that has been “verified by both traffic, engineering and the fire department as being appropriate and acceptable for this space,” Portillo said.
According to Portillo, the lot has a total square footage of 170,928 square feet, plus or minus 3.92 acres.
Trustee Schechter, who ultimately voted against the site plans, said the project did little to address its overall environmental impact. “The highest and best use of land does not mean the maximum possible development. Government should serve as the public’s stewards, especially mindful of those who have no vote, like children, trees and wildlife.
“This development provides rentals only for affluent families,” Schechter added. “My vote is for mixed income housing on the site. So please return to us with a redesign project. In my opinion, it should accommodate trees, parkland and clay equipment available to the neighborhood.”
In accordance with the village’s Affordable Housing Ordinance, 5% of the development’s total units (4 total units for this development plan) must qualify as affordable housing, or petitioners may pay a $100,000 per unit (or $400,000 in total) fee-in-lieu of onsite affordable units.
Fulton Street Companies petitioned for village trustees to approve a cash payment of $450,000 in lieu of affordable housing, as an attempt to match the original developer, Luz and Associates #1’s bid, which was eventually abandoned when the company folded on the project after receiving Board approval back in February 2024.
In response to backlash regarding the fee-in-lieu proposition, Ross Babel, co-founder of Fulton Street Companies, defended the company’s proposition to observers.
“In order to make [this project] work, there’s a lot of whole pieces that have to fall into place for us to be able to move forward, and one of them is the economics of the deal.
“If we do go with affordable [housing], we need to increase the density on the site to be able to accommodate that and still fit their parameters that you know capital markets are looking for,” Babel said.
Babel told the Pioneer Press over email that it was “too early to provide specific projections” for the cost of rent at the site, but at the Board meeting, some community members referenced earlier projections they were provided that set a two-bedroom unit at $3,750 a month and a three-bedroom unit at $3,950.
“Just going by spending 30 percent of your income on your rent, that means for the two bedrooms, people would have to make $150,000 a year,” Whitaker said. “So I’m a little concerned about affordability.”
2024 data from Census Reporter estimates that the median household income in Skokie is roughly $92,000 a year.
Community member Brian Levinson used his public comment period to applaud the board’s acceptance of Fulton Street Companies’ proposal.
“This project is a situation where fee-in-lieu is not only appropriate, but essential to ensure the project actually moves forward,” he said. “If on-site affordable housing were required at this location, the financial impact would not be absorbed by a for-profit developer; that cost would be passed directly to Arie Crown, an institution that is a valued part of the Skokie community for decades.”
Mark Hartman, co-president of Arie Crown, said he was impressed by the iterations the community has gone through to reach a middle ground on the project.
“The proposal before you today is not the proposal that was first introduced. It reflects input, compromise and genuine effort to balance the needs of the school with the concerns of the surrounding community,” Hartman said. A stall on the development could have worse consequences, he added.
“I want to be candid about what is at stake if this project does not move forward. The likely alternative is not some better, unseen proposal waiting in the wings. The reality is far more concerning,” Hartman said.
“The property at 4600 Main Street will remain vacant. The building will continue to deteriorate. The boarded up, decrepit structure on Main Street does not serve the neighbors, does not serve the village, and it certainly does not reflect the vibrant, forward-looking community that Skokie strives to be.”
The Village Board has not yet set a date for trustees to approve an ordinance draft for the development project.