Village Center Development Stopped ... AGAIN

This week the Wilmette Village board voted to stop development on the site of the former Ford dealership (611 Green Bay Road.) Citing insufficient plans for parking, the board voted 4-3 for the project but 5 yea votes were needed for approval.

Chris Canning, Village president, indicated he "doubts the proposal would fit in with the redevelopment of the rest of that block that village officials hope for in the future. 'I just don't see this being a catalyst for development. I think this would chill development...''' (from Pioneerlocal.com, "Wilmette Project Fails To Win Needed Votes".)

Let's get something straight: there is no development in Wilmette right now. Worse, as long as the Village board uses an approval process that resembles the Bataan Death March rather than a true vetting process, and continues to make decisions like this, there will not be any development in Wilmette.

In reality, the Village government has stifled development. In 2005 Wilmette Village Center LLC first proposed developing the Ford dealership lot and was actively encouraged by the Village. WVC spent millions of dollars getting ready to build in our village. It took over three years to secure permission, including painstaking discussions about traffic and parking in the area. The long delay and cumbersome process dragged on long enough to miss the North Shore real estate boom entirely. After that fiasco, what developer would want to invest in Wilmette?

And yet, in 2008, Wilmette Village Center LLC opted for commercial development. In a somewhat shorter process they explored the last real chance to create something in the Village that we sorely lack - new commercial space. I'm not, nor was I, a big fan of yet another bank or drugstore moving in on Green Bay Rd. I am so tired of looking at a raggedy sign and weed infested dirt pile in our Village that it was a good change. And our village leaders killed that prospect over a few parking spaces.

Shame on the Village Board (current and immediate past) for not taking more progressive action and failing to see past truly minor issues to bring more business to the Village. This site is a blight on the Village; it is a terrible way for the thousands of people who pass the site every day to see our town. In an era of ever increasing empty store fronts we lack a commercial vibrancy this project would have brought to Wilmette.

And for at least one more year, the Village residents get to look over a weed infested dirt lot.