Loyola Academy was back before the Glenview Village Board last week asking for permission to begin construction of its sports fields immediately. Attorney Mike Downing introduced Loyola’s team: a site engineer and land planner, a project manager, another lawyer and "most importantly of all, President, Reverend Father Ted Munz." Downing said the school had scheduled a ground breaking for 10 a.m. Sunday. All of the trustees had been invited, along with Glenview’s congressional and state representatives and its state senator. Even the Governor might come, and the school wanted to fix things up before company arrived by importing a few truckloads of gravel for the access road.

Loyola also said it had met with the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA), and now thought it might be necessary to bring in more than 12,000 truck loads of clean landfill to create its sports complex. Site engineer Bob Hamilton explained that creation of playing fields would require installation of drainage and sprinkler systems under turf. The original game plan entailed cutting through a 22-acre clay cap placed over the landfill, sifting through its contents, separating soil from construction debris, then replacing the cap and spreading the soil over it. The entire process would take about two years.

Hamilton said officials from the IEPA didn’t like that idea, so he came up with another one – to import dirt. That, he said, would be safer and faster. The new sports fields could be ready in a year.

Neither approach held much appeal for Bernice Reder, a Valley Lo resident whose home is nearby. "For at least 20 years, we ate dust from the Lutter Dump, from the Krohn Dump, and we fought with EPA to get that place closed. . .We never expected to be fighting about the dump again in our lifetime," she said.

Reder feared a dusty re-run of summers past. "When they’re dumping and pushing dirt, we get it in our houses. . .You can’t open anything up. You can’t sit in your yard. Your chairs are all dirty, and when we heard this was going to be open again, we were 100 percent against it."

Hamilton conceded that with either approach there would be dust. "This will be a site that dries out faster than the site over on The Glen. . .We will actually have a more intense issue because it’s up higher." He promised water would be used extensively to keep the dust down.

"The EPA really does desire this use [sports fields]," added attorney Michael Ohm. "This is a very appropriate use for a site of this sort. At the same time, the IEPA is very focused on the redevelopment being as safe and protective of the environment as possible. . .The approach that we’re having to deal with now is one that the EPA deems to be safer and more protective. . .EPA was emphatic that this was the preferred choice."

OH REALLY?

Village attorney Jeff Randall questioned the Loyola team at some length – trying to find out who at IEPA had endorsed this second plan to truck huge amounts of soil to the site. Chris Liebman, IEPA’s manager of the solid waste unit’s permit section was named as the contact, but Liebman told The Watch, "I don’t recall voicing a preference. Either approach could be done in a way that would be acceptable. They have met with us a couple of times and showed us preliminary plans. I don’t recall trying to steer them in any particular direction."

Editor’s note: While Loyola said it would spend more to undertake the second approach, that may not be the case. No one knows what lies under the clay cap. If Loyola were to find a great deal of construction debris – concrete chunks and hunks of steel for example – the process could take longer and cost more. Already, the school has run into at least one unpleasant surprise. The Illinois EPA says their newly acquired landfill is contaminating ground water, and Loyola will have to correct that problem before beginning work.

HOW THEY VOTED

The board agreed to let Loyola bring gravel to the site for Sunday’s groundbreaking, but refused permission to start importing soil. Only Trustee Mary Beth Denefe approved of that idea, and she did so without public explanation. Later, Denefe said some land fill would be required regardless of which approach the school chose to take, and she was confident Loyola would "act in good faith," stopping work later if the board should vote against one or both of the construction plans.

The Watch pointed out that Loyola had originally offered to provide Glenview with a conservation easement along the river – setting about two acres aside for wildlife and a future river walk. Loyola is now backpedaling from that pledge – asking the village to pay them for the land, but Denefe said that issue was "not related."

LOYOLA PLAYS HARD BALL – CARLSON PLAYS DEAD

In this week’s Announcements, President Carlson echoed Denefe’s sentiment, saying he would not block construction to win the conservation easement. Instead, he said negotiations were underway with Loyola. Sources outside Village Hall report Loyola wants $220,000 an acre for the property – the same price paid for land along the river in the North Shore Corporate Park. That property was suitable for building. Loyola’s land is in a flood plain, covered with brush, and part of the site is wetland – subject to regulation by the Army Corps of Engineers.

UG TRUSTEES UNITE TO BLOCK HOMEOWNER PROTECTIONS

During the campaign, they made much of their "independence," but at Tuesday’s board meeting, Larry Carlson, Jeff Lerner, Mike Guinane and Mary Beth Denefe voted as a block on proposals designed to limit the size of new homes that replace teardowns.

The question was simple: Should Glenview further restrict the dimensions of new homes in existing neighborhoods? Current limits are based only on the lot. If you have a big lot, you can build a big house. But what happens when people buy two lots and put them together in a neighborhood of small homes – or acquire a lot that’s much bigger than what the neighbors have?

Glenview’s Plan Commission/Zoning Board thought that was a problem and proposed that a limit or cap be set based on the zoning of the neighborhood. Trustee John Crawford and former trustee Kent Fuller made a similar proposal using a formula that restricted building even further, and last week village staff presented its plan – a middle-of-the-road recommendation.

Despite the fact that Glenview has been struggling with this problem for years, President Carlson saw no rush. "Are we over-regulating a bit?" he asked. "Is there really a problem that these caps are addressing, or would we want to consider putting this on hold for six months and see what comes in?"

Trustee Guinane misunderstood the situation completely – assuming the proposals would change the current maximum building size ordinance rather than expand on it. "We just passed this ordinance six months ago," he said. "We really haven’t given it time to work its way through the system." Then resurrecting some lines he memorized for the campaign Guinane added, "We have an obligation here to the homeowners of the community to protect their property rights, to protect the values of their homes, but then we also have a responsibility to the neighborhoods to protect the unique characteristics of those neighborhoods."

"I do agree with Trustee Crawford," he added, making the sounds of a statesman. "I think that we can find a happy medium here, and I’d just like to see it work its way through the system for another six months and give it the opportunity."

"We know there is a problem." said Trustee Crawford. "Everybody agreed there was a problem. . .We don’t have to wait six months to find out if there is a problem."

Guinane countered, "I recommend that we give this ordinance the opportunity to work for another six months but, in the mean time, work together with staff and the board members to come up with a happy medium here – with numbers that are acceptable to everybody and that protect the rights of the homeowners and maintain the unique characteristics of the neighborhoods, and protect the property values."

"Well this is all just happy talk!" said Crawford.

Trustee Donna Pappo tried to correct the impression the proposals being considered would take away from the current ordinance. "This amendment would complete the current ordinance. It was always a missing piece. We always viewed it as such. We wanted to get something in place, and we agreed to do this work later, and that’s what is here before us tonight."

But her argument fell on UG’s deaf ears. The board voted along party lines to reject the Crawford/Fuller proposal and the staff proposal to further limit new home construction on oversized lots. The Plan Commission/ZBA proposal failed by an even bigger margin when Trustee Rachel Cook said it was wholly inadequate and would not get her vote.

Cook scolded Guinane for using volatile language – implying that to limit the size of homes that replace teardowns is violating "homeowners’ rights." That characterization was, she said, "inaccurate," noting that people who want to sell or build are not the only homeowners with rights. She urged Guinane to "get away from inflammatory statements."

Pouting and missing her point, Guinane replied: "There was no, there was no intention in that statement at all, and there was no volatility intended Trustee Cook, and it’s unfortunate, I think, that you’ve taken it that way, but I’ll respect your wishes, and I won’t bring up the rights of homeowners in future discussions on this board!"

DON OWEN RETURNS WITH NEW SURPRISES

Without explaining the apparent double-billing by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill for installation of park benches at The Glen, Redevelopment Director Don Owen came before the board Tuesday, asking for additional funds.

First, he requested $112,913 to conduct an annual census of families at The Glen over the next five years. The numbers gathered, door-to-door, would help the village determine how much money from the TIF fund would be going to the village, park district and School Districts 34 and 225.

Village Manager Paul McCarthy said Glenview needed a professional service to undertake the census since millions of dollars would be dispensed based on the numbers, and auditors would be checking to be sure the schools, parks and village got their fair share.

In addition to approving that expense, the trustees authorized a payment of $82,500 to document the appearance of Hangar One, which is on the National Register of Historic Places. By law, no changes can be made to the building until a record is made for posterity – photographing the building and collecting historic pictures, scanning them into a computer, doing field drawings and measurements. Glenview plans to convert the hangar to a shopping mall.

Finally, Owen asked for another payment to Glenview’s engineering consultant at The Glen. Harza has an $8.6 million contract for planning and oversight. Owen asked for an additional $240,766 for help with prairie and wetland management, storm water control at the Home Depot site north of Willow Road, a traffic signal at the new METRA station, an upgrade of Shermer Road north of Lake Avenue with new water lines and storm sewers, and the addition of electrical outlets to street lights along the main streets of The Glen.

Trustee Rachel Cook reminded Owen that she had asked for a running tally on how much individual contractors had received. That, she said, would help the board get a handle on Glen spending. Owen said it would be done. So far, he explained, his office has tracked spending on a geographic basis – project by project – rather than watching the totals for each vendor.

LYLE CAZEL GIVES ‘EM HELL

Irascible Glenview resident Lyle Cazel addressed the new board, and he began with his favorite issue – poor service provided to his south Glenview neighborhood by Commonwealth Edison. Cazel reminded the board that two years ago, folks on his street were without power for six days. "When I came to Village Hall and asked [Village Manager] McCarthy why, he said the village could not be an advocate in this matter at all. . .If there are summer outages this year, will the village be our advocate or not?"

McCarthy denied making that remark, but Cazel said he was "famous with his friends for having a photographic memory." President Carlson didn’t see how the village could get involved since the Illinois Commerce Commission regulates utilities. "Why can’t the village go to the Commerce Commission?" Cazel replied. "We’ll look into it," said Carlson.

Cazel also griped about post office parking, which he called "a nightmare waiting for an accident to happen." He urged the board to post signs prohibiting double parking at the Prairie Street location and impose stiff fines on violators. "Force the knuckleheads to be courteous," he said.

Calling the request "obscene," he urged the board not to give Kemper Sports Management $393,000 to "improve the view for golfers, and he complained that some Glenview residents are political orphans. Referring to those who live south of Central and are represented by Walter Dudycz and Jeff Schoenberg in Springfield, Cazel complained, "They really don’t care about the Maine Township sector of their districts." He added that the area’s congressional representative – Jan Schakowsky – "ignores Glenview constituents and is far from courteous." Cazel wondered why a meeting to discuss possible redistricting was not publicized in advance. The event took place on May 5 at Village Hall, but nothing appeared in the Announcements or the village newsletter beforehand.

NORTH SHORE REALTY SENT PACKING

Despite the fact that downtown Glenview is struggling to keep tenants in all of the storefronts, the village is sending one viable business packing because it doesn’t comply with the controversial D-1 zoning that says only retailers – restaurants, stores and dry cleaners – can occupy first floor space. The trustees took North Shore Realty to court, and a judge told the firm to move out of its offices at 1114 Waukegan Road by the end of this month. That’s why, come June, North Shore will be doing business at 3412 Milwaukee Avenue – in Northbrook.

DEVELOPER TOLD TO TAKE A HIKE

The developer building homes on a five-acre site north and west of the New Church asked to be excused from Glenview’s new maximum building size ordinance. Ferris Homes had begun planning the development known as Ashton Park before new limits were imposed, but their work was delayed when Glenview required construction trucks to enter the site from Lake Avenue. That meant getting special permission from Cook County, which took about a year. Ashton Park argued it had spent more than $100,000 on architectural drawings and the houses were not far from meeting the new village requirements, but Manager McCarthy was firm with the builders – pointing out that they submitted their plans after the new restrictions were set and should have known that Glenview was considering a change to its ordinance.

BELMONT VILLAGE GETS A BREAK

With the full approval of Glenview’s Park District, the Village Board voted to give the assisted living facility at Shermer and Golf a break on park impact fees. When Belmont first started planning its development, it expected to pay about $40,000, but the board voted to change its formula for calculating the builder’s contribution, and Belmont was now contemplating a payment in excess of $400,000. The developer insisted that elderly residents of its property would not require any special Park District facilities and that they would be paying regular taxes to cover their participation in any programs. In a separate deal, they agreed to pay the Park District a one-time fee of $130,000. Perhaps fearing a lawsuit that might overturn or limit the use of such fees in Glenview and other communities, the Park District agreed.

LET THE PUBLIC BE HEARD

On back-to-back nights in June, the public will have a chance to direct the future of Wagner Farm and the Rugen Center. The first program, at 7 p.m. Monday, June 4 will feature a presentation of the Wagner Farm Steering Committee’s long-range plans. That group and eight subcommittees have been debating various options for the past six months with the help of a professional consultant. You’ll hear about an interpretive center, orchard, crop and grazing areas – then be invited to comment.

Rugen Center and the surrounding Swenson Park will be the subject the next night at the same time and place. Proposals for this location include complete or partial demolition of the dilapidated building and additions of a dog park, in-line skating hockey rink, skateboard park and softball field.

The first hearing on the mixed use retail center or MURC at The Glen will be held at Village Hall at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, May 23. Some $70 million dollars in public money could be spent to lure a department store, construct a movie theater, build parking lots and make other improvements to the site.

SCHOOL BUDGET CUTS TO BE ANNOUNCED

On Monday, May 21, School District 34's Board will consider budget cuts totaling $500,000-$600,000 for next year. Superintendent Dot Weber says the balance of money needed to close a $1.3 million gap between revenues and expenses will come from reserves. The public is welcome to attend the 7 p.m. session at the system’s headquarters – 1401 Greenwood Rd.

Also at that meeting – an announcement of four finalists in the competition to name Glenview’s newest school. Nearly 170 people submitted suggestions for the middle school at The Glen. Ground will be broken for that building on June 8.

THE ANNOUNCEMENTS KEEPS READERS GUESSING

Some residents are still scratching their heads over the cover of this week’s Glenview Announcements. It features two ladies buying flowers at The Grove with a cutline that reads, "Rob Blomquist helps clean the West Fork Saturday." Blomquist is an award-winning science teacher and environmentalist who took part in last week’s citizen clean-up of the Chicago River near Target and Kohl’s. His photo did appear in the on-line edition of the Announcements (www.pioneerlocal.com) but was missing from the published version of the paper.

READERS WRITE

From SJ comes a scolding for The Watch: "It amazes me that you print incorrect information on Jim Smirles but don't point out that two other properties on Camden Drive were reported on domania.com selling for $30,500 and $39,150. With this information, you should have known that there must be some mistake. It was pretty obvious to those who looked at that website. However, you chose only to report on Jim Smirles. You seem to be pretty fast in reporting your facts without totally checking them out. Once again you are wrong but blame it on someone else. A good reporter checks more than one source.

The Watch replies: We did check with another source – Jim Smirles. It was his conduct that made us wonder. Surely, we thought, he would tell us if a mistake had been made. Instead, he refused to discuss it. We also checked with Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Domania.com. The company told us that surprisingly low prices listed for real estate transactions on its site can represent an error, but more often they reflect a divorce settlement, sale of property to a relative or the sale of something other than a house – such as land or a parking space.

We also called Edward James, patriarch of the James Company, which built Heatherfield. He told us the super-low prices on Domania were actually a mistake of the decimal point – that the properties mentioned by SJ sold for $305,000 and $391,500. As we reported last week, James believes a mistake was also made on the purchase price for Smirles based on the fact that there are two transfer taxes imposed – one based on a dollar per $100, the other calculated at 50 cents per $100. A careless clerk could have looked at the $196.50 transfer tax (based on the 50-cent formula) and recorded the Smirles sale at $196,500 when – in fact – the purchase price was double that.

Zcloser also objects to our coverage of the Smirles listing on Domania.com: "I'm curious about two things in last week's edition of TGW. First, where's the apology and/or admitting of the mistake regarding the Smirles property and the erroneous purchase price that was reported? The Watch took the "easy way out" by stating that you were only reporting what another web site showed.

"And second, how does a lack of response to date from Loyola Academy on providing a conservation easement constitute a ‘broken promise?’ Maybe a response is forthcoming. Shouldn't you exercise at least some amount of responsibility and wait until an official response is issued before passing judgment? Oh yeah, I forgot, it's the Watch. Never mind."

The Watch replies: Unfortunately, the wheeling and dealing on Loyola’s river front property is being done behind closed doors. If we wait for an official statement from Loyola or the Village, you can bet the deal will already be done with no chance for the public to speak out. Loyola’s had plenty of time to prepare a conservation easement for the wildlife habitat next to its sports complex. We’re blowing the whistle and crying foul before it’s too late.

As for the Smirles case, we never accused the former village president of wrong doing. We did raise a question and offered him the chance to reply. We gladly published an explanation provided by the James Company and do not feel an apology is warranted.

Fritz has an idea: "If you want to report on something really wild, find out how in the hell District 34 can spend $47,000 taking Glenview kids to the Grove in Glenview. If they pay the Grove a fee, shame on the Grove. If they pay 47 grand for the bus, they should walk."

The Watch replies: The Grove does, in fact, charge District 34 $4.50 per child for field trips – $2.00 less than it charges kids from schools outside the Park District’s bounds. The grand total for two field trips per year – one for science and one for social studies – is $25,000. The cost of buses adds $22,000 more. To save money next year, the administration has proposed charging parents for the trips.

Danielle writes about downtown Glenview: "How do we preserve its character? Two houses will be torn down to make way for a series of townhouses near OLPH. Many of the homes in this area are on big lots and no doubt are being scouted out by builders to purchase in order to build additional multiple dwellings. Wouldn't be great if single-family homes were considered for any additional construction? How do we make that happen?"

The Watch replies: Take your case to the Village Board. President Carlson has shown a willingness to permit public comment, and the Trustees need to know if village residents want different zoning rules or limits on replacements for teardowns in their neighborhoods.

And Terry Wodder still holds hope for a downtown library: "I'm pleased to see some movement on the post office. With the Renneckar's site back on the market, village and library officials should be encouraged to discuss the possibility of relocating Glenview Paint & Glass from their present site to increase the possibility of the library remaining downtown.

"The Renneckar's site might, in fact, be a more desirable site for GP&G since it is across the street from Bess Hardware and closer to other retail stores.

"Finally, if the library will simply adjust the size of their expansion to meet but not exceed future needs, the downtown site will work like a charm without wasting millions of dollars relocating to a new site and starting all over."

YOUR TURN: Share your views on local issues and news. E-mail to glenviewwatch@aol.com or snail mail to 3537 Maple Leaf Dr., Glenview, IL 60025. Your comments are an important part of the Watch, and we look forward to hearing from you. We are Sandy Hausman and Dean Schott, co-editors of Glenview Watch.

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