http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/o...inionfront-hed
Evanston's lofty skyline dilemma
By John McCarron who teaches
writes and consults on urban affairs
Published July 2, 2007
My neighbors in Evanston -- the navel of metropolitan Chicago -- are agonizing these days about downtown skyscrapers.
Not in the Loop or along Wacker Drive, but skyscrapers right here in the ever-so-thoughtful home of nuclear-free zones, four-hour public hearings and holistic therapy.
Normally I advise those who live in one of our region's other 265 municipalities not to mind what's going on in Evanston. How much does a body need to know about organic landscaping, say, or Afrocentric middle school curricula?
But this time everyone should pay attention -- especially everyone who lives in a mature, not to say old, inner-ring community being sapped quietly of population and economic energy by the sprawl machine that growls 24/7 out along the suburban frontier.
Evanston, you see, has stumbled onto a formula for reinvigorating itself. So have Oak Park, Arlington Heights, St. Charles, Elmhurst and a handful of others. They are redeveloping old downtowns, often around a Metra station. They are saving bits and pieces of the familiar -- an old movie palace here, a beloved family restaurant or ice cream shop there -- while recruiting developers to build in their midst -- gasp! -- multiunit townhouses and condo towers.
The idea is to bring back the old retail centers as residential villages. They're pulling in young people, professionals, gays and empty-nesters; people fed up with outer suburbia's left-turn lanes and soulless strip malls; people seeking a taste of urban chic, or just a sense of place, without having to move to the city proper. There are more such people, it turns out, than anyone had imagined.
All of which threatens some mossback suburbanites. They like things the way they were -- quiet -- before the espresso bar or the fine arts center or the multiscreen cinema. They especially don't like condo towers. Such congestion, they argue, is why they chose not to live in the city.
This tension over what suburbs are supposed to be is spreading across the region. And Evanston, a college town blessed with sandy beaches, too many PhDs and an eminently recyclable downtown, is the bellwether.
Battle after battle is being fought over the height of condo towers, the number of required parking spaces and the displacement of locally owned stores by formulaic chains. But the biggest fight is just getting started.
Earlier this year, shortly after developers James Klutznick and Tim Anderson sold out and leased-up their 25-story Sherman Plaza condo-over-retail megastructure, the two announced plans to redevelop the north half of what's called the Fountain Square block across the street. This one would soar 49 stories, or 523 feet, above Church Street between Sherman and Orrington Avenues. Whereupon a second development team, led by R.D. Horner Associates and HSA Commercial, announced a condo-over-retail extravaganza for the southern half of the same block, theirs rising 37 stories, or 421 feet.
Suddenly Evanston has a three-front skirmish among two developers, who, as a practical matter, can't both build what would be suburbia's tallest building on the same narrow block, and a good portion of the town's citizenry, who want no new skyscrapers whatsoever.
What to do? Well, Evanston is blessed with legions of know-it-alls like myself who know exactly what to do. But don't look for this reporter at any of those four-hour public hearings. Covered too many of them as a cub. So instead, here's what I think Evanston should do, short and quick:
*Force the two development teams to merge or force one to buy out the other. The entire block should be redeveloped under a single concept.
*Trade height for what Evanstonians desire at street level. Let the developer go 50 stories, 60 even, on their residential tower ... if it's a sleek design and if they're willing to preserve the charm and low cornice line of the existing limestone storefronts.
*Negotiate, also, for underground parking; for retention of local stores and professional services willing to pay rents that reflect new space; for preservation, at minimum, of the front of the landmark Hahn Building located at mid-block; and for construction, at the developer's expense, of a first-class veterans' memorial and fountain to replace tired Fountain Square. Fact is, cities can negotiate for just about anything in return for the zoning approvals and public infrastructure required by developments of this magnitude. But first those cities need to know what they want, not just what the NIMBYs don't want. And they need confidence -- confidence in the strength of their market; confidence in their ability to bring in another developer if the first one can't or won't deliver.
After decades of losing stores, jobs and population, Evanston and other older "railroad" suburbs find themselves beseeched by opportunity -- and yes, by opportunists. They need to get their acts together, to calm the fears of the uninformed, but most important, to press their advantage.
Take it from someone who witnessed the bad old days -- the days when Sears, Marshall Fields, Lyttons, Baskins, Rothschilds and Smythe Furniture all lined up to leave town. We have problems now, sure. But compared to then, these new problems are good ones to have.
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