4/20 Berwyn Neighborhood Meeting

[buzz]

Got an Email about a meeting to discuss "senior development" this Wednesday.
  It's @ 7pm  Police Dept. Community Rm.
                  6401 W. 34th
                  Sponsored by Town Builders Studios & CoB.
Anyone got any idea what this is about ?
I'm thinking it's the "rumored" MacNeal nursing home/disco/car wash development.
Thanks             

[buzz]

I got nosey.
Town Builders Studios,  50 Forest Av  Riverside  708.442.4545  (that's a Cicero # according to the yello pages, reverse lookup has no info)
These folks previously did a Berwyn Transit-Oriented Development Study (TOD) for us. Parking structure ?
They currently have a huge project in Peru, Il. in partnership with Provena Health.
It's the St. Bede Living Center; a 2 story assisted living center with a TCU (transitional care unit).  They are developing it in a "blighted" area.
Cost estimate is  $15M. It's HUD construction, using $4.4M in TIF dollars.
They were also chosen by Glen Ellyn for their restoration of the Downtown Historical District.
If you go to their web-site there's a big list of some very impressive projects.
 
So I'll bet MacNeal/Vanguard/Blackstone is involved.  Can they be thinking of putting a similar development in the area around the current hospital ?  Is this why MacNeal's hanging on to those parcels ?

[MRS. NORTHSIDER]

I also looked at their website.  I'll guess we'll find out tomorrow evening.  I'll try and let my neighbors know about the meeting.  I used to live on 16th Street and when we were looking for another home we wanted it to be on a side street with a quieter, more residential feel to it.  This is not what I had in mind at all.  Thanks for the notice about the meeting Buzz.  If not for you, I would not have known. 

I also noticed Town Builders does TIF negotiations and I wonder if that will come into play at all with the development if that's what they're doing.  As far as I know there's still a moratorium on tear-downs so that would have to be lifted if they're talking about the properties that the hospital owns.

[buzz]

  It's @ 7pm  Police Dept. Community Rm.
                  6401 W. 34th
            

I goofed, the meeting is at   6401 W. 31st Street

[The Jackal]

That's the corner of Ridgeland and 31st. Unless the Police Dept address is 6401, there's nothing but grass there.

[Thor]

So what ever became of the Transit-Oriented Development Study? I ask because about a year and a half ago I asked one of the BDC people and they said it was waiting for funds from the state. Here is the part where we all collectively hold our breathes.
So Town Builders Studios got money to do a study which really had no funding behind it to do the  implementation portion. So by the time we do get funding, if ever, wont the TOD study be obsolete? I assume Town Builders Studio got paid and the good people of Berwyn got what??? Before I get nailed again for posting something negative let me say I think the Depot District is beginning to look good but it sure aint because of the TOD study. 

[Homebody]

If I remember correctly, the TOD showed the hospital expanding. The map I looked at showed that hospital plans would go either east along Windsor or south along Oak Park Ave. The design took either plan into consideration. Hospital expansion was a given. It is interesting to consider whether some Aldermen were taken into the confidence of developers. Some aldermen gave a different developer quite a difficult time when his similar plan for the Depot came to zoning. The posting of this meeting is the first I heard of the plan. Marge

[Terri]

If I remember correctly, the TOD showed the hospital expanding. The map I looked at showed that hospital plans would go either east along Windsor or south along Oak Park Ave. The design took either plan into consideration. Hospital expansion was a given. It is interesting to consider whether some Aldermen were taken into the confidence of developers. Some aldermen gave a different developer quite a difficult time when his similar plan for the Depot came to zoning. The posting of this meeting is the first I heard of the plan. Marge

Alderman Paul,
I just forwarded the email sent yesterday from Alderman Boyajian. 

Thanks Buzz for bringing this to our attention.  

[buzz]

These folks previously did a Berwyn Transit-Oriented Development Study (TOD) for us. Parking structure ?

Thor, that's why I added the ?  Couldn't find any more about it.

... the TOD showed the hospital expanding. The map I looked at showed that hospital plans would go either east along Windsor or south along Oak Park Ave.  Hospital expansion was a given.
The posting of this meeting is the first I heard of the plan. Marge

Marge, I just forwarded it to your email @sbc.

[buzz]

Oops !  Terri, I just saw your post.  Ya' got 2 now Marge

[buzz]

That's the corner of Ridgeland and 31st. Unless the Police Dept address is 6401, there's nothing but grass there.

I dunno Jackal
email says it is at the police department Community Room.
Gives the address as 6401 W. 31st St.

[tgoddess]

Why do a picture a bunch o' stoners turning up for something called the "4/20 Berwyn Neighborhood Meeting?"

[buzz]

Do I know you ?   

[buzz]

Turnout was low, somebody screwed up notifying residents.  39 people and that included 4 presenters, the Mayor, 3 alderpeople, and some (5?) Berwyn employees, Brian Lemmon and 2 other staff from MacNeal.  There will be another meeting scheduled.  Does not look like MacNeal has any ownership in this project.  Their involvement is the properties they would sell to the developer, and possible management support for the facility.  Funding would be from the gov't/HUD.... but no work has been done on that.

[MRS. NORTHSIDER]

I was present with my husband and a few other neighbors I was able to get in touch with since I heard about the meeting this past Monday, the 18th, when Buzz posted it.  I'll bet they wished we didn't find out about it and I'll make sure I make sure EVERYONE else finds out about the next meeting.  I find it awfully strange that they didn't have someone personally put flyers in the mailboxes of the 9 (nine) homes directly across the street from this proposed development.  Oh, and I guess our alderperson has an email list which apparently no one on this side of the block is on.  Paranoia?  You tell me.

[Ted]

 What are the properties that MacNeal would sell?  Is it Wesley between the tracks and 33rd? Or Wesley between 34th to 33rd? Are they talking about tearing down houses?

 Thanks
   Ted

[MRS. NORTHSIDER]

 What are the properties that MacNeal would sell?  Is it Wesley between the tracks and 33rd? Or Wesley between 34th to 33rd? Are they talking about tearing down houses?

 Thanks
   Ted

Ted - It's Wesley between 33rd and 34th on the west side of the block.  MacNeal (Vanguard) owns 5 of them and the remaining homeowners have entered into a contract with Town Builders? (I assume) to sell and yes that whole side of the block would be demolished to build some type of senior assisted living facility with one of the options they showed being a parking garage just west of that on the ground service parking lot that MacNeal now owns which residents in the area have previously shown they were overwhelmingly against.  Also, that block along with the 3200 block of the Wesley have the largest number of centennial homes in the city of Berwyn which I assume doesn't enter into the tear-down equation either.

[buzz]

  I find it awfully strange that they didn't have someone personally put flyers in the mailboxes of the 9 (nine) homes directly across the street from this proposed development.

I think Mayor Lovero was angry about that.  I'll bet it doesn't happen again.

On a different point.  Mrs N. there was a woman in front of you, 3rd row, who spoke at length about SNF legalities.  What did she say ?  People in the back of the room couldn't hear a word she was so soft spoken.

[MRS. NORTHSIDER]

  I find it awfully strange that they didn't have someone personally put flyers in the mailboxes of the 9 (nine) homes directly across the street from this proposed development.

I think Mayor Lovero was angry about that.  I'll bet it doesn't happen again.

On a different point.  Mrs N. there was a woman in front of you, 3rd row, who spoke at length about SNF legalities.  What did she say ?  People in the back of the room couldn't hear a word she was so soft spoken.

She was my neighbor who has a career in the business and doesn't care to be living across the street from one.  I honestly didn't hear everything she said because she is very soft spoken but afterwards she said that when they take in a resident/patient, they run a criminal background check on them and it often takes 3 days to get that back.  If for example, they are a sex offender they cannot legally remove them from the facility.  Being in such close proximity to a school (St. Leonard's) and my home that does disturb me.  I wonder how the parents of those children would feel about that.  My other neighbor, who will have two children there this coming school year, brought up the fact that she didn't think that anyone at the church had been informed about the meeting.

[Homebody]

I want to thank the BTF ppl for alerting me to the meeting. I arrived late after attending another meeting. Let's lay it on the table. This has Mayor Lovero's stamp of approval already. I don't wonder why there was so little publicity about the meeting. The suggestion that the City use the new reverse 911 system to deliver the message to the public is a no go in my book. Using City equipment and funds to further a private developer is out of the question.

The Mayor said that he would make sure that people were notified of the next meeting and perhaps would be dropping fliers on every Berwynites' door step. What man power will be used for this? Using the Berwyn Explorers again would be utilizing a city financed organization to publicize a private developer's meeting.

The developer has done very little in the way of work according to his own statements. He has not done a marketing study. No impact study. No architechtual or engineering. The town home facade he showd in the power point looked surprisinly similar to the concepts that the TOD study (which he led) found most pleasing to the eye of participants way back then.


The developer won't do any of the preliminary work unless he has a good feeing about the plan being accepted by the City; I don't think he means the residents.