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player ready...Birders opposed to the building of a Carvana used car sales glass tower next to a Skokie forest preserve say they plan to flock to a Feb. 7 meeting to ask the Skokie Village Board to scrap plans for the structure. They say the 14-floor tower could cause the death of thousands of birds who mistakenly fly into it.
Residents of nearby condo towers have also organized in opposition to the Carvana tower, saying it could have “drastic negative impacts” in the area. They say light from the 14-floor tower will flood the area at night, vehicle delivery trucks coming and going will create noise, the building could lower property values and that the sales and property tax revenue promised by Carvana are not realistic.
Asher Bronfeld, president of a condo building in the 9700 block of Woods Drive near the proposed Carvana site, said he and others have expressed opposition to the project since October and have brought their concerns to village hall and elected officials. But he said opposition grew as birders got wind of the proposal.
“It’s kind of mushroomed from its initial phase,” he said, adding that he plans to make a presentation to the Village Board at the Feb. 7 meeting. “Birders got wind of it and that caught fire.”
Indeed, Annette Prince, director of Chicago Bird Collision Monitors, said an online petition has been signed by more than 4,000 people opposed to the Carvana tower, which would be a block away from the Harms Woods Forest Preserve.
“It has all the elements that put it at the highest threat level for bird strikes,” she said, adding that birds cannot see glass, especially at night. “It’s in a location that’s only going to multiply that fact that (birds) could get killed or injured at this location.”
The tower, similar to Carvana towers in cities around the country, would be a glass and steel “parking and exhibition structure” that uses an automated storage and retrieval system that moves cars in and out of the tower. Vehicles are stacked in the vertical structure until they are retrieved for customers, according to village documents. The only Carvana tower in the Chicago area is located in Oak Brook.
In order for Tempe, Arizona-based Carvana to build on the site, which is currently a parking lot, the Village Board must accept the plan commission’s recommendation and allow the company to build a car dealership in what is currently zoned as an “office research district,” village staff said. They said the company is also seeking zoning approval to allow it to display more signage than is currently permitted.
Skokie Trustee James Johnson said he plans to vote against the project at the Feb. 7 meeting, and also said the village has received more than 500 letters and emails from people opposed to it.
“We’ve been getting all kinds of opposition,” he said. “It’s just way too close to a residential building and a nature preserve. Birds. That’s one of the biggest factors that’s been brought up.”
In the wake of protests, Carvana said it would turn off the lighting on three sides of the glass tower at night and would also put markers on half the windows to help prevent bird strikes.
“That’s essentially saying that 100 birds would have died there, now there’s only 50 because they decreased the threat,” said Prince. “How do you negotiate something dying? How do 50 birds deserve to die when this tower doesn’t even need to be there? Why fix half the problem? Even with the pattern, birds may strike the building.”
She also said she is rallying birders and expects hundreds of them at the Feb. 7 village board meeting.