Everybody in north suburban Glenview knew life was going to be a lot different when the village took over 1,100 acres of mostly vacant land at the former Glenview Naval Air Station and began figuring out ways to develop it.
But the ripple effect of the closing has gone way beyond increased traffic and construction dust: It also is having an impact on local elections.
Three trustees on the Village Board are being challenged by four aggressive opponents asking them to account for decisions on everything from how the renovation of the old base is being funded to whether the elected officials are in touch with residents.
It’s one of two similar tempests on the North Shore this spring–the other being in nearby Lincolnwood–where the April 13 elections are looking more like referendums on how the North Shore villages will be shaped in the future than a choice for just who will govern.
While the debate in Glenview swirls around the development of the former air station, in Lincolnwood a coterie of residents alarmed about proposals for industrial and commercial property also are challenging incumbents.
And elsewhere, voters will be asked to approve money for infrastructure. In Glencoe, voters will be asked to approve up to $1.9 million in bonds for downtown street improvements. In Kenilworth, voters will be asked to raise the village’s debt capability from $60,000 to $600,000 to pay for capital improvements.
Although most other North Shore towns have elections for municipal board slots, of those only Wilmette’s is contested. Incumbents Daniel H. Carter and Frank Whitehand, along with challengers Pat Hughes and Lisa Miller, are vying for three seats.
The most dramatic changes to the landscape, however, are in Glenview, where development of the former base will add roughly 15 percent to the town’s land base and increase the population by thousands.
The Village Board in recent months has come under fire over the creation of a tax increment financing district to help fund the base redevelopment and the role of the public in helping village leaders make their decisions. Critics are particularly worried about the TIF, because although it helps pay off the bills incurred for infrastructure and other development costs it diverts much-needed tax dollars from schools.
As a result, the Glenview First party was organized to mount the first election challenge in a decade. The candidates charge that the Village Board is acting more like a board of developers than one of elected officials.
“They have been disregarding the interests of homeowners in retaining the quality of life that we have here in favor of putting up multimillion-dollar developments,” said candidate John Crawford.
Crawford, who is running on the Glenview First slate with political newcomers Rachel Cook and Donna Pappo, sat on the Village Board from 1971 to 1979 and was chairman of the Zoning Board of Appeals from 1979 to 1987.
Running as an independent and also challenging the incumbents is Michael Guinane.
“The homeowners of Glenview need a stronger voice,” said Guinane, a businessman and the president of the Glen Oak Acres Homeowners Association, which successfully battled to lower the density of the Optima East project going up on Waukegan Road.
The challenges have incumbents scurrying to answer them. The three who are up for re-election are Robert McLennan, William Stickney and Emil Ulstrup. Their party is the Glenview United Party.
Among the accomplishments they list include negotiating to acquire the former air station for free from the Navy, securing financing for its redevelopment while maintaining the village’s excellent credit rating, and holding hundreds of community meetings and sending out hundreds of thousands of newsletters informing people of the work.
McLennan thinks the Village Board has done a good job of listening to residents.
“Anyone who thinks we’re pro-development ought to talk to any developer that has appeared before us,” said McLennan, 55, who is a local businessman running for his second term on the Village Board.
McLennan and the other United Party candidates defend the use of tax increment financing as a good way to get money for redevelopment of the base without raising taxes on Glenview property owners. In addition, they point out that the village has agreed to compensate school districts for the cost of new students generated by development at the base.
In Lincolnwood, three candidates, likewise fearful that the board of trustees is pro-development, are challenging Mayor Madeline Grant’s slate.
Running under the party Citizens for Lincolnwood are Barry Bass, Sharon Weintraub, and Ron Schachtel.
At the heart of the debate is the fate of vacant land in the village’s northeast tax increment financing district, which includes land zoned for industrial and commercial uses. Recent debates have revolved around proposals for an 18-screen movie theater and a retail center, neither of which was approved by the Village Board.
“I became involved in politics to preserve the integrity of my neighborhood, the value of my home, traffic, and safety and so on,” said Bass, a finance manager who lives in a neighborhood near the failed movie theater site.
Fending off the challengers are the candidates in the Lincolnwood Progress Party, incumbents Peter Moy and Gerald C. Turry, and newcomer Mary Couzin.
“The concerns (of the residents) were heard,” said Moy, a commodities trader. “Everything that they have addressed has never happened as far as development is concerned.”
