As 2016 come to a close, the Lake Forester looks back on the biggest local stories of the year.
Laurel and Western
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Few local issues attract more attention than new real estate development, this was particularly true of the development at Laurel and Western avenues in Lake Forest.
After nine years, the Lake Forest City Council approved a plan by Focus Development of Northfield on April 4 to construct 110 apartments in three buildings, 42 condominiums in two buildings and 12 single-family homes on the 10-acre site of the former municipal services building.
The proposed development required numerous meetings of the Plan Commission and the Building Review Board. Those meetings attracted residents who expressed concerns over density, the site’s grading, parking, building heights, a shrinking Franklin Park, potential damage to the Heritage Tree, landscaping plans, traffic, drainage and a reduction in open space.
City officials say the property will generate property taxes and potentially supply shoppers for nearby downtown businesses.
Block 3 and Lake Bluff development
To the north, Lake Bluff residents flocked to village government meetings with concerns about two separate residential proposals for the downtown block that formerly housed a PNC bank. The block is bordered by Oak, Evanston, North and Scranton and is commonly referred to as Block 3.
In February, Uppercross Development Group pitched a 16-unit development that was withdrawn after concerns over height and density. A second proposal by Roanoke Group was withdrawn in September.
“At the end of the day, there was just too much negativity about it,” said Peter Kyte, principal at Roanoke Group.
On Sept. 12, village trustees amended development requirements for the block, limiting any development to 30 feet in height with no more than two stories.
The on-again, off-again proposed development on an 8.5 acre parcel along Route 60 and Saunders Road was back on the table in 2016 when Jason Smith, of Smith Capital Management in Lake Bluff, and Middleton Partners of Northbrook closed on the property March 9. Both the Shiner Group of Wilmette and Pine Tree Commercial Realty of Northbrook had previously pitched plans for a retail development that included a Whole Foods.
The city council granted final approval in April to North Shore Builders to construct the Westleigh Farm subdivision south of Route 60 and west of Ridge Road. Plans called for 33 single family homes.
Public safety pensions
A major financial challenge for the city of Lake Forest appears to be how to handle the increasing cost of funding pensions for the fire and police departments.
The fire pension levy in 2005 was $466,229, according to a presentation at the Oct. 3 City Council meeting. In 2016 it’s $1.2 million. By 2027, city officials project that it will increase to $2.6 million. Add the police pension fund, and the total public safety pension costs are projected to hit $6.7 million by 2027. The funding challenge was exacerbated in 2016 by weak returns on pension investments.
Ald. Stanford Tack served on a city committee tasked with looking at fire department costs.
“Unaltered, the growth of public safety pension obligations alone will require massive tax and fee increases as well as severe cuts in other governmental services in order to merely fund the annual increase,” Tack read from a prepared letter during an October city council meeting. “The committee determined that there were no significant opportunities for revenue enhancement or fiscal efficiencies in the fire department that could clearly contribute to the mitigation of these clearly unsustainable financial trends.”
In the short term, the city council approved a public pension safety fee in December that will go into effect in May 2017. The fee is $10 per quarter for single family homeowners and $35 per quarter for all other properties.
In the longer term, the city plans to reach out to neighboring communities to discuss sharing fire services, although what that would look like has yet to be determined.
Amtrak line expansion
In October, Lake Forest officials and residents scrambled to respond to a proposal to construct a side train track of at least 10,000 feet near the Academy Woods subdivision.
Amtrak wants to increase service on its Hiawatha line between Milwaukee and Chicago from seven round trips a day to 10 round trips a day. To make that possible, five projects were proposed along the mainline tracks that would allow trains to increase speed and reduce travel times. One of those projects would involve building a side track near the Academy Woods subdivision, located north of Kennedy Road between Waukegan Road and Interstate 94, that is long enough to hold a typical freight train.
The Academy Woods Homeowners Association, Pine Oaks Condominium Association and other residents are concerned about potential noise, vibrations and air pollution from idling trains as well as how the project might impact the Middlefork Savanna and wetlands.
In cooperation with Bannockburn, Deerfield, Glenview, Northbrook and Metra, the city was able to persuade the Federal Railroad Administration to extend the comment period by another two months, up to Jan. 15.
Officials are lobbying the Federal Railroad Administration to complete a more thorough environmental impact statement on the project.
Unexpected repairs
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In May, an inspection of the Ferry Hall Bridge on Mayflower Road south of Spring Lane found problems with the area below the northbound lane. Inspections since then found “severe deterioration of the original concrete and reinforcing steel of the span,” primarily due to road salt according to city documents.
The inspection determined that the northbound lane can no longer support its current 15-ton capacity and must be reduced to five tons. In July, the Lake Forest City Council agreed to spend $28,500 to hire an engineering firm to figure out what work is needed.
The council also hired an engineering firm at a cost of $33,400 to examine the bluff adjacent to Forest Park from Spring Lane to the North Beach Access Road. In May, city staff noted that the bluff on the east side of South Beach Access Road had begun to move and separate from the curb and road.
A century ago
Market Square, arguably the first mall in the country planned around automobile access, celebrated its centennial over the summer.
The Lake Forest Preservation Foundation celebrated 40 years in November with a gathering at the historic downtown train station. So did Ragdale Foundation, which threw a party at its estate in September.
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