In 2007, Lake Forest began considering the future of its municipal services site, then at Laurel and Western avenues. Nine years later, the Lake Forest City Council has approved a plan to build a large residential development on the site.
With a 7-1 vote on April 4, the city council approved a plan by Focus Development of Northfield to construct 110 apartments in three buildings, 42 condominiums in two buildings and 12 single-family homes. The plan provides 260 underground parking spaces, plus an additional 22 parking spots on interior streets.
Ald. Stanford “Randy” Tack, 3rd, was the lone vote against the project.
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“I was representing the people in my district who were opposed to it,” Tack said after the meeting. “I personally was not opposed to it.”
The total land proceeds will be $12 million for the 10-acre site, said Elizabeth Holleb, finance director for the city. Focus will pay $5,625,000 on closing, which is expected to take place in June or July.
In a somewhat complicated financing mechanism, Focus Development can be reimbursed for the other $6,375,000 through a Tax Increment Financing district (TIF) the city created for the property, said city attorney Vic Filippini
“This was not a developer-driven project as much as city-driven project,” Filippini said. “There were some pretty specific objectives the city was looking for; underground parking, the amount of open space. A developer would have wanted taller buildings and more units. It wasn’t making sense from a private development perspective.”
Focus Development can also be reimbursed up to $1.7 million by the TIF fund for changes made during the public review process and up $1.15 million for off-site improvements on public property adjacent to the development such as sidewalks, streetscapes, sewers or on-street parking.
Focus Development will pay $2,368,712 in building fees and $650,000 to the housing trust fund that will be used for affordable housing somewhere else in the city, officials said.
The TIF, which will last until 2039, is projected to pull in about $30 million over its life, Holleb said. Of that, 42 percent will go to District 115 and District 67, to offset an expected increase in students, as well as the Lake Forest Library.
In a TIF, property taxes going to taxing bodies like libraries, schools and municipal governments are frozen at a certain level when the TIF is created. The taxing bodies continue to receive that frozen amount. Any property taxes above that level go into a TIF fund, or what’s referred to as increment.
Money in the TIF fund can be used for subsidizing a developer, cleaning-up polluted property, infrastructure improvements, job training and other items that help attract or retain businesses.
The city took time off from developing a vision for the site from 2008 to 2012 due to the Great Recession, said Cathy Czerniak, community development director for the city.
By December 2014, the city chose to work with Focus Development. They spent 13 months working the project through numerous meetings of the Plan Commission and Building Review Board.
Residents, particularly those who live near the site, showed up at public meetings where they offered comments, criticism and concerns.
Among those concerns have been density, the site’s grading, parking, building heights, a shrinking Franklin Park, potential damage to the Heritage Tree, landscaping plans, traffic, drainage and the amount of open space
At the April 4 meeting, nine residents addressed the city council. Among them was Emily Watts who remains concerned over the reduction in Franklin Park’s size.
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“No public space is safe if the city can sell public space to a developer,” Watts said.
Other residents expressed concerns over the development’s density and plans for landscaping.
Czerniak said Focus Development would have to submit a final landscaping plan to the city.
Ground preparation including grading and the installation of sewers, water mains and roads would start in July and then building construction would take place in two phases, officials said.
The first phase would start sometime this fall and run through March 2018, officials said. It would include all three apartment buildings, the central condominium building and the six single-family homes to the northwest.
The timing of the second phase would depend on how condo sales go, but is projected to start roughly around time phase one ends, Czerniak said. That phase would take about 16 months and include construction of a condominium building near Laurel Avenue and the six single-family homes to the southwest.
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