River Forest will sell six village-owned lots on Madison Street to a developer for $10 and kick in up to $2 million in tax-increment financing after the Village Board narrowly approved a five-story, 69-unit mixed-use building at 7620 Madison St. in a 4-3 vote.
Village President Cathy Adduci cast the deciding vote at roughly 12:30 a.m. Tuesday, Aug. 18, after a contentious meeting at Trinity High School that stretched past five hours, drew 18 public comments and required two breaks. Trustees Lisa Gillis, Robert O'Connell and Respicio Vazquez joined Adduci in voting yes. Village Administrator Matt Walsh presented the project to residents earlier that evening, the Forest Park Review reported.
The board attached seven conditions to the approval, including lead service line replacements and creation of a neighbor impact fund, according to the Wednesday Journal. The full list of conditions has not been publicly released.
The deal
Five Thirty-one Partners, led by Viktor Jakovljevic and Chuck Westphal, will purchase the parcels at 7620, 7618, 7614 and 7612 Madison St., 10 Lathrop Ave. and 11 Ashland Ave. for a combined $10. The village assembled those lots between 2017 and 2019 using its Madison Street TIF district, established in 2016, and received a $350,000 state grant for demolition of existing structures.
The developer will receive up to $2 million in TIF-eligible reimbursement, with $1 million payable when the building receives its certificate of occupancy, according to the village's development proposal notice. A guaranteed property tax floor sets the base assessed value at $1.9 million, with appeals limited so the valuation cannot drop below the base plus the consumer price index each year.
The approved building includes 69 market-rate apartments, approximately 3,380 square feet of ground-floor retail, 87 off-street parking spaces and a private roof deck. The project includes no affordable units. Westphal told the River Forest Development Review Board at its Feb. 19 pre-filing meeting that rents would run about 15% higher than the comparable building across the street. Five Thirty-one Partners must complete construction within 24 months of permitting.
Public pushback
The Development Review Board unanimously recommended approval after a July 9 public hearing. Resident feedback during that process led to a reduction from 72 to 69 units, improved floor plans and expanded landscape buffers.
Opposition remained strong.
Resident Kris Mackey, a River Forest District 90 school board member, was among the 18 speakers at the Aug. 17 meeting. In a July 28 letter to the editor in the Wednesday Journal, resident Susan Singer described the building as 87 feet tall, nearly three times the 30-foot height limit, and said it would provide less than half the required parking with setbacks waived to allow open-air parking along adjacent single-family property lines. A resident speaker at the DRB hearing presented a computer-generated shadow map showing the building, situated due south of neighboring homes, would cast shadows over several rows of houses for extended periods during winter.
"The building height and density are very important and make the development significantly less economical with eliminations," Westphal told the Development Review Board at the Feb. 19 meeting, defending the project's scale.
The village worked with real estate advisor JLL to market the site. Jakovljevic described himself as a long-time community resident at the February meeting.
No groundbreaking date has been announced. The 24-month construction clock begins once permits are issued.
