Dear Winnetka Village Council:
I am a student at New Trier High School and a resident of Winnetka. I am writing to you in the support of One Winnetka even though it doesn’t offer any affordable housing. I think affordable housing is hard to do. Communities around us are also having a hard time with reaching the 10% required by The Affordable Housing Planning and Appeal Act. Only Glenview meets the 10%, not Kenilworth, Glencoe, Northfield, Wilmette or Winnetka.
The Village did not meet the 10% before One Winnetka came in the picture, so I don’t think you should put pressure on One Winnetka to solve the problem. You should come up with a general plan to fix this issue like renovating houses and apartments that are empty and available to buy and turn them into affordable housing so people who work in the community also are able to live in the community. This would also help with diversity in Winnetka. There are not a lot of minorities here. The number is low, only 2.5% of the population is Black or Hispanic. Only Kenilworth and Glencoe have lower.
Winnetka should do better with affordable housing and minorities, but that doesn’t mean we should turn away the project because it is what we need right now. The block has been empty for a long time. No one else has come up with a better idea to bring business to that part of town. David Trandel, head of One Winnetka, says that block is “the largest, most blighted portion of downtown.” Fell Company, Marian Michael and Phototronics are long gone. This building will make downtown Winnetka look better.
The left is empty spaces and the right shows a big improvement.
One Winnetka will also bring in money with the shops and restaurants and high real estate tax. Rents are going to be around $4,000 a month.
Maybe we can use the taxes from these expensive rents to make affordable housing somewhere else in the Village?
This might be what Gail Schechter is looking for when she says that Winnetka should “demand of the developer a stated community benefit.” The benefit would be because of the new taxes coming in, we can raise our affordable housing and minority percent. And that is what we all want for Winnetka.
From,
Anne Baldwin