Skokie lawmakers have okayed giving Carvana a zoning change, clearing the way for the used car dealership to build a 14-story glass tower next to the Harms Woods Forest Preserve.
The action came despite the protests of activists who packed a Monday night board meeting saying thousands of birds will die by crashing into the tall glass structure near a wooded area.
Residents of the nearby Optima condo complex also opposed it, saying light from the tower will flood the area at night, vehicle delivery trucks will create noise, the building could lower property values in the area and that the sales and property tax revenue promised by Carvana are not realistic.
The Skokie Village board during its Feb. 7 meeting voted 7 to 1 to allow the company to build the vertical used car dealership in what is currently zoned as an office research district, and to also allow the company to display more signage than is currently permitted.
“This has been a difficult process for all of us,” Trustee Alison Pure Slovin told the dozens of people who packed the board’s chamber on Feb. 7.
“I have done my due diligence,” she said. “I have spoken to residents who have reached out to me. I have read every single email that has come across my desk. I know this is very emotional for all of us including myself, but I am responsible for the economic development as a trustee of the village as well and I am voting ‘yes’ on this especially as it has been amended this evening.”
Resident Kimberly Polka told the board the proposal is “egregiously wrong and it should not be approved.” She said that like many others, her concerns center on bird strikes and the potential negative impact of the tower on nearly residential buildings. She also said the village is setting a bad precedent by allowing what she called essentially a billboard so close to the Edens Expressway.
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“You cannot correct it if you approve it,” said Polka, who got more than 6,000 signatures on a petition signed by people opposed to the tower.
“I feel like I am speaking for hundreds of Skokie people because I have spoken to hundreds of Skokie people,” she said. “It’s a glass display case with a billboard.”
Others said it is insensitive to allow the glowing glass tower to be constructed only a few hundred feet from the Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center at 9603 Woods Drive, that the village did not do due diligence on the company, that Carvana has a sketchy business record and that the structure could have a negative environmental impact in the area.
But Carvana has over the last few months made changes to its plan to address concerns. It altered the route trucks will take coming to and from the building, reduced delivery hours, agreed to treat the glass exterior with decals to reduce bird strikes and to dim lighting at the site. And during the Feb. 7 meeting, the company also agreed to Trustee Edie Sue Sutker’s request that the internal and exterior lights on all four sides of the glass cube tower be turned off from March 15 to June 15 and from August 15 to November 15 each year between midnight and 7 a.m. when birds are typically migrating through the area.
Bret Sassenberg, vice president of Tempe, Arizona-based Carvana, told the board the company would take that extra step if “it helps the case and the concern of the compassionate folks here tonight concerned about bird strikes.”
“As well as everyone on the board recognizes that we’d be the only building with that level of protection in the neighborhood, we’d love to be that building for you,” he said. He called the building a “vending machine” and said the company wants the sign facing the Edens Expressway to be lit at all times regardless of the season.
Trustee James Johnson was the only “no” vote on the zoning change and he also said the community has expressed overwhelming dissatisfaction with the project.
“This is not a project that is supported by Skokie residents,” he said. “The village is in the process of revising its five-year sustainability plan and creating a new chapter in the comprehensive plan to focus on sustainability, and also on the verge of signing onto the climate action plan for the Chicago region. This is a big year for sustainability in Skokie. We have an obligation to make sure that our commitment that we are expressing to sustainability really lines up with our actions.”