John Swierk, who previously served on Winnetka’s design review board, is the newest member of the Winnetka village council. He fills the trustee seat vacated by Chris Rintz, who successfully ran in April of this year to become village president.
Village Manager Rob Bahan swore Swierk in at the council’s July 18 meeting. Swierk will complete Rintz’s uncompleted trustee term, which ends May 1, 2018. The appointment brings the village council back to full strength; it has been operating with Rintz and only five trustees since April.
Rintz said July 20 that he chose Swierk in large part because of his previous experience on the design review board.
“I was looking for a candidate who already brought significant experience in operating on boards to the table, someone who had the knowledge of how board policy and process works, because we needed someone who could hit the ground running,” Rintz said.
Swierk, who is president of the Prairie Grove-based DDCA Architects firm, most recently served as chairman of the village’s design review board, holding that position for the last seven years, Rintz said.
According to information on the village website, the design review board, among other duties, holds hearings and issues certificates of appropriateness, in connection with building and sign permit requests for multi-family, institutional and commercial structures.
During Swierk’s time as chairman, the design review board considered cases including New Trier High School’s Winnetka campus renovation project, and the One Winnetka retail-residential project.
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