On Monday night, the Village Board is set to approve the construction of row houses on the north side of Duane Street, between the Citibank parking lot on the east and the library on the west. The proposal received a 7-1-1 approval from the Plan Commission and appears to have the full endorsement of Village Management.

The developers' financial condition aside, does anyone, ANYONE give a flip about commercial development in downtown? The Mews, the Clinic, Harris Bank, the two monster condos at Park and Cresent...all wasted potential retail/mixed use space... If we keep developing it, WITH VARIATIONS, for non-retail use, we continue to box in our downtown and only leave outdated space to rent for hobby retailers.

A retail-space mix is needed. All seem to want to revitalize downtown, but little/nothing in the village's policy-making seems to help that cause.

Reasons for approving the Row Houses with variations include: "It’s a tight area so parking becomes a problem if it is developed commercially or as a mixed use development." Call b.s. on this one. The area is surrounded on three sides by public or semi-public lots, with a fourth, huge, municipal lot nary a block away. This thinking leads one to believe that the only successful P.U.D.s in downtown GE will be strip malls with parking in front or condo buildings with parking garages underneath. Ridiculous.

Another reason for approval: "More people who live downtown will increase foot traffic and CBD shoppers." Yes, but there has to be something for them to purchase. Over the last decade or so, three multi-story condo buildings and the Mews have brought high-end residents to our CBD, yet retailing in downtown does not seem to have florished.

Final endorsement for approval: "Its better than what is there now." This is true, and makes sense. But why does Glen Ellyn always, ALWAYS have to settle for something less than our plan? Something less than the highest and best use of the land?

The comprehensive plan for Glen Ellyn calls for commercial development of this space.

If it is not up the staff, the board and the plan commission to encourage new downtown retail development and support the comprehensive plan, who is it up to? If not them, who? If not now, when?

Excellent post.

I consider your last paragraph especially insightful:

quote:

If it is not up the staff, the board and the plan commission to encourage new downtown retail development and support the comprehensive plan, who is it up to? If not them, who? If not now, when?

I'll note I'm not particularly in favor of or opposed to this development. I was initially opposed to the Crescent/Park buildings, but now am ambivalent. I was opposed to the Mews and the Clinic, and I favored the proposal across from Soukups.

But one constant seems to be that any "development" in town will be done on a piecemeal basis and dictated by individual profit-oriented developers, with little or no guidance from any "plan."

Are there plans for this project anywhere online?

quote:

Originally posted by Well Meaning:

The developers' financial condition aside, ...

Wait a minute. I just caught this. Who is the developer? Because I find it hard to believe the village would be so stupid as to allow a developer access to a high visibility central location if he didn't have a mighty fine record of completing his previous projects within a reasonable time and to the satisfaction of the ultimate buyers and neighbors.

This from a February post by KW:

"I can also tell you, (and I may have before), that he does not control the finances in the Duane Street project, and that he is a minimal partner in the Duane Street project. I've seen an artistic drawing of the project, and for what it's worth, it looks great, doesn't have turrets, and is a very familiar and classic style that most people will find appealing, and would certainly fit well on Duane Street. I may already have overstepped my bounds here, but George told me that his partners have a timetable on the project, and he has milestones that have to be met as the builder of the project. If that project goes through, there shouldn't be any issues with the speed of construction. I think people need to lighten up a bit here, especially when you don't know the entire story."

If you replace 'Duane Street' with 'Mews' it sounds like the story we heard earlier...and we all know how well that one went...

quote:

Originally posted by Well Meaning:


The comprehensive plan for Glen Ellyn calls for commercial development of this space.

As near as I can tell, the comprehensive plan for Glen Ellyn is a completely worthless document, ignored by any and all people, boards, and commissions involved with the government of our fair Village.

Not sure how much we spent for its preparation, but if it was greater than 65 cents, it has been money poorly spent.

It's really amazing, isn't it? This Village has all the leadership of a paper bag.