Short History of Oak Park

The village board drew a line in the air above which architect John Scheiss was forbidden to rise.  But he did it, and now he pays:

Learning that the Opera Club mixed-use building at the southeast corner of South Boulevard and Marion Street was built 5½ feet higher than it was supposed to be drove the Oak Park Village Board last night to levy a hefty fine–$188,223 . . .

The Opera Club developer also has to make a parking lot on land a block away that is to be cleared.

Scheiss has apparently been making changes that depart from a 2004 agreement with the village.  The board just found out about them, such as using bricks that displease the eye on one wall.  But news of the 5 1/2–foot overbuild is what tore it for the trustees.

Trustee Ray Johnson, the most developer-friendly of the seven, called it “a serious issue,” even though he had earlier said the discrepancies might have been the village’s fault. 

“This takes us to another level,” Johnson said. “That’s a major problem for me.”

A key village staffer, head of its Building & Property Standards Department, admitted that village procedure, even in measuring height, ”leaves something to be desired.”  But it’s up to the developer to stay within guidelines, said village president David Pope.

The height issue had top priority at the start.  Schiess wanted seven stories, neighbors wanted five at most.  But he went with five to reap good will for the developer, he said, who has other Oak Park projects planned.

But the five-foot discrepancy was clear from the start, Scheiss said at the 8/3 meeting at which the fine was imposed, not only to him but also to village staff — who apparently did not inform the trustees — because an extra foot per floor of “unusable” space had been prescribed by the structural engineer.

[Scheiss] said he met with [Village Planner Craig] Failor and another staff member to review the plans and they talked about the height difference. Staff had the opportunity to not approve the plans, but they approved them, Schiess said.

Meanwhile, Scheiss got the OK from someone else — the above-mentioned Building & Property Standards people — for the sensible-shoes no-style brick but didn’t tell the planner.  These bricks were what had trustees’ shorts in a bunch until they heard about the five or five and a half feet — measurements differ, alas — and that’s what made the roof fall in on Scheiss and the Opera Club.

During discussion about ending the night-time on-street parking ban, OP trustee Martha Brock “repeatedly said the village needs to find a way to reduce the number of cars residents own,” Oak Leaves reports.

“I think it’s a good idea to seek to reduce the overall demand for parking,” Brock said, adding that if the village creates more parking spaces, residents will continue to purchase more cars.

Of course!  People have been thinking the problem is not enough parking, when it’s too much!

Meanwhile, the board went ahead on its teardown moratorium, rushing the vote to honor its own moratorium on meetings during August.  It halts demolition of single-family houses on multi-family and commercial streets.  It’s a saving of the 200 such structures, for now, until new ordinances can be crafted, according to trustee Robert Milstein, who likes the idea very much.  He threw out the 200 figure in discussion, identifying it as his “opinion.”

The vote was held on Monday after study-session discussion on Thursday.  That’s legal, said the village lawyer, because OP is a “home rule” community.  The moratorium was opposed only by trustee Ray Johnson, who said he had got calls from worried realtors, to which Milstein and Brock responded that they had got them from not worried ones.

Milstein had said (several times) that it’s a matter of “courage” to vote for this (and do some other things).  Johnson said on Monday that it took courage to oppose it. 

Village President David Pope said he’s usually not for moratoria but would make an exception this time, calling it “a reasonable step” because of its limitations — which if it covers 200 houses can’t be so limited as all that.  Nor is it limited to 120 days: the trustees can shorten or extend that at will, Wednesday Journal reports.

The uncertainty of it all plus other recent board actions might make OP look anti-development, warned Johnson.  “There is also a lot of uncertainty when it comes to residents,” countered Milstein.  In other words, you got your uncertainty, I’ve got mine.  Very high level of debate here.

Couple incidents in the past week or so cling to the memory.  Of neither can I be sure, but both are rife with possiblity:

1. I got wolf-whistled during the recently complete gay games in OP.  Was walking around the HS stadium as athletes and others milled.  Soccer was in progress across the street, where from the sidewalk outside the big playing fields I spotted Wed Jnl editor Ken Trainor chatting with a woman whom I took to be a sort of spokesperson but might have been someone Ken was chatting up in the course of doing his story.  Back across Lake St. near the stadium, where I was looking around, I headed back and away down Lake Street away from it all.  Had just passed some soccer players as they sauntered toward the field house, where I assume they used locker rooms and showers.  Which is when I heard it and thought it was aimed at me but can’t be sure, of course.  Didn’t turn around.  A fella doesn’t, you know.

2. Week later, crossing Lake at OP Ave. 7:30 or so a.m., I waited for the light to change from green arrow, allowing five or six vehicles to go their way.  The last of them, a dark-khaki or olive-drab SUV of weathered appearance, slowed at the intersection, however, but kept turning, so as to make a U-turn and head back down OP Ave., heading south.  I glared through his windshield, barely making him out, and kept looking as he completed the turn.  Then I got across, turning to see what he was doing: he was pulling over.  I assumed he was stopping for a Caribou coffee across OP Ave. and briefly considered continuing my glare.  But I was enjoying my walking too much and so turned to go my way.  A few more steps, now curious, I turned again, and the SUV was gone.  He had stopped to give me what-for, I decided, but when I was no longer looking, he sped off.  Maybe not.  Could be wrong again.  Anyhow, it was a great walk, taking me through the park with its small hill to Grove, and thence to Chi Ave.  Returned by way of Euclid with its big houses and headed on home.

Coming out of very good conversation at George’s with old friend and liberal Dick, I think of something I might have said, namely that I don’t have positions on everything and the positions I have range from certain to perplexed.  Dick peppered me with qq about what I think about various issues.  I think I did make the point that on this or that I have no more than leanings.  Haven’t studied this one, nor that one, I said, and I think he got my point.  But it’s an important one, that we ought to look before we leap and not be too facile in adopting and defending this or that.

I did mention what I’m reading (when he asked), namely Friederich Hayek on individualism, the good and the bad kind, British and Euro.  More later on this.

He mentioned days long ago when we agreed on everything.  But those were days when I did more leaping than looking, as a young priest teacher at St. Ignatius, for instance.  But even then we probably had disagreements, and he was wrong to assume otherwise.  This is it with people: if they agree wholly, there’s something wrong.  It means they are buying too much and should put the brakes on conviction-forming.  Anyhow, too much agreement makes for boring conversation, which mine with Dick wasn’t.

OP’s village board reaches out:

Oak Park trustees are looking to stop teardowns that are threatening predominantly single-family blocks in multifamily zones.

At a study session Thursday, trustees directed Village Attorney Ray Heise to draft an ordinance that would prohibit demolition permits to be issued for single-family homes and small flats in multifamily districts for 90 days.

Trustees expect to have a first reading of the ordinance at a special meeting tomorrow, and vote to adopt it Monday.

That’s fast work, but

“We have the power as a home-rule community to do it,” said Trustee Robert Milstein, who led the charge for a moratorium. “We need to have some courage as a board.”

We can’t let that power go to waste, can we?

Brian Lantz, 305 Home Ave, is one of three Oak Parkers, of 10 letter-writers in all, in Sunday 7/23 Chi Trib decrying the Toddler Stroger coronation as county board president nominee. Lantz suggests secession: “We have” services we need. It’s a “duplication of county government.”

Two others, Carmen Vitello and Jane Jeffries, explicitly say they will vote Republican in November. “I have always voted Democratic, but I hope there is a groundswell among Democrats to support Tony Peraica to show the party that we really want change and reform,” wrote Vitello, who is not listed. “I’ve been a proud Democrat until last week. Now I’m ashamed,” wrote Jane Jeffries, also not listed. “I voted for Forrest Claypool in the primary, and for the first time in my life, I’ll be voting Republican this fall.”

Now. Is OP village board President Pope in for a dollar, having been in for a dime for the April primary, when he made calls for defeated Dem candidate Forrest Claypool? Will he be making calls for Peraica?

This month’s Wednesday Journal column is up and running.  It’s about local-govt intervention in the business lives of all of us — see the recently posted Lane Bryant episode — and all-around leftist leanings in OP.

Oak Park

is the target of a recent lawsuit, filed after officials decided Lane Bryant doesn’t fit the “kind and quality” of shops desired for the building.

Sun-Times reports.

In a downtown known for its trendy shops and clothing stores, Village President David Pope said officials want “a more broad-based retailer” to fill the building rather than one with “a niche market.”

Lane Bryant specializes in clothing for women sizes 14 to 28.

Since when does local government make marketing decisions for developers?

. . . says Mark Brown, who at the end of his description and attempt to figure out the Stroger in Wonderland happenings says something that must be occurring to lots of people beside Tony Peraica:

All I can say for an absolute certainty, though, is that this situation has been nothing but good for the Republican nominee, Commissioner Tony Peraica, who is looking more and more like a contender.

In Oak Park, for instance, lawns were loaded with signs for Forrest Claypool, Stroger’s opponent in the recent primary.  Will those become Peraica signs this fall, even in Democrat Oak Park?