Tonight (Mon., July 6) the Park Ridge City Council is set to give its final approval to changing the zoning of two long-standing “B” (business) parcels to multi-family residential (R-3) for no apparent reason other than a couple/few handfuls of those properties’ neighbors want it that way, and Fifth Ward Ald. Robert Ryan (along with a majority of his fellow aldermen) is trying to give it to them.

We don’t fault the neighbors of the former Napleton Cadillac parking lot (NW corner of Northwest Hwy and Meacham) or Audrey’s (SE corner of Northwest Hwy. and Elm) for wanting to keep potential commercial buildings – and whatever traffic they might generate – out of their neighborhoods.  We think that kind of NIMBY mentality is useful in bringing issues to the attention of the rest of the community.

And we don’t expect a huge outcry from the mass of ordinary Park Ridge residents, who probably haven’t given the matter a whole lot of thought; and, if they have, probably side with the neighbors for the same reasons.

But why is the Park Ridge business community so strangely and deafeningly silent on this issue? 

Our City went millions of dollars into hock helping finance “Uptown Redevelopment” because of pie-in-the-sky assurances that retail, retail and more retail would keep Park Ridge consumer dollars here, while at the same time drawing in consumers from outside the community, thereby raising our sales tax base and providing property tax relief.  And one of the loudest advocates of that plan was none other than Robert Ryan, who back then was a member of both the now (mercifully) defunct Economic Development Corporation and the Uptown Advisory Task Force.

This is the same Ald. Ryan who happily voted to give Bill Napleton as much as $2.4 million of our tax dollars before General Motors pulled the plug on his dealership.  But just 18 months later he wants to convert “B” property – including Napleton’s parking lot – into “R” property.  What’s up with that?

We have the oddest feeling that we’re missing something here – the same kind of feeling we have about the secretive Taste, Inc. situation – but we just can’t quite put our finger on it.  Any thoughts from you out there in the audience?

But the really strange thing to us is why we haven’t heard so much as a a “boo” or a whimper from that local bastion of capitalism, the Park Ridge Chamber of Commerce.  According to its website, “the Park Ridge Chamber of Commerce continually strives to help business develop and grow.”  Hey, Chamber president Karen Anderson and Exec. Director Gail Haller…how does converting “B”-zoned property to multi-family “help business develop and grow”? 

And what about the City’s Economic Development Director, Kim Uhlig?  She gets paid a pretty darn decent salary and benefits to get businesses to come to Park Ridge, and to retain the ones already here.  Hey, Kim…how “welcoming” can you make Park Ridge look to the regional business community when we strip business sites from one of our more traveled thoroughfares that has been home to a variety of retail establishments and business offices for decades?

Kim?  Anybody?  Bueller?

We realize this re-zoning and map amendment are probably a “done deal,” given that both of the required two readings have been pushed through in what appears to be the record time of a mere seven days.  But when the votes are counted this evening and the City Council has chosen to boost multi-family residential over business, again, we hope you will make a note of each and every one of the aldermen who support this action.

That way, the next time Ald. Ryan or his Council buddies brag about how “pro-business” they are, or tell us how we need to spend more of our tax dollars on “business-friendly” boondoggles like façade improvements and the like, we can remind ourselves of who voted to reduce the number of available business sites in Park Ridge.

That way, we’ll know which of them are lying through their teeth.  Again. 

Update (7/7/09)

“Each and every one of the aldermen” who voted to change the zoning on three “B-1” properties to “R-3” are: Allegretti (4th Ward), Bach (3rd Ward), Ryan (5th Ward) and Wsol (7th Ward).  

Not surprisingly, the Park Ridge Chamber of Commerce and its individual local merchant members were MIA.  What was surprising (and dismaying), however, is that not one of the four Alder-dunces who voted for the changes asked the City’s retail “czarina,” Kim Uhlig, about how those changes might impact her never-ending quest for more retailers.  But, then again, with “done deals,” anything beyond knowing what to do and when to do it is superfluous.    

Finally, we give a shout-out to Alds. Carey, DiPietro and Sweeney for voting against mindless multi-family residential re-zoning.  Too bad they’re outnumbered by the Alder-dunces.

We closed Wednesday’s post with the comment that converting B-1 space to “R” (residential) space is not something that the City of Park Ridge should rush into just because a handful of residents want it, or because some local politician thinks he can buy some goodwill from such a change. 

Unfortunately, that’s exactly what happened this past Monday night, as 5th Ward Ald. Robert Ryan led the charge for the zoning change to the former Napleton Cadillac triangle parking lot at Northwest Hwy and Meacham.  That change, and a similar one to the “Audrey’s” property at Northwest Hwy and Elm, passed on first reading and are scheduled for final second-reading approval at this coming Monday night’s Council meeting. 

Two readings in seven days sure sounds to us like a classic rush to judgment, especially when we have a holiday weekend intervening.  But that just shows how badly the Council wants to get this done.  And “badly” is how it likely will end. 

Why is this being done when there aren’t even any plans on the drawing boards for the affected properties, and with the City growing increasingly desperate for tax-generating businesses to locate here?  If Park Ridge truly does have an “anti-business” reputation, it sure isn’t being helped by B-1 properties being converted to R properties.

But according to Ryan, he’s being “responsive” to the wishes of his 5th Ward constituents…after repeatedly having given them the back of his hand on issues like the redevelopment of Executive Office Plaza and his support of the PADS homeless shelter.  And that’s when he wasn’t leading the Council in number of missed meetings. 

Ryan claims that changing the Napleton lot’s status from the B-1 designation it has had for at least the past 20 years to R-3 will “provide consistency with the Uptown plan” – even though that property (and Audrey’s, for that matter) isn’t even part of the Uptown plan, as best as we can tell; and even though Northwest Hwy is dotted with a variety of businesses and strip centers from Uptown all the way out past Oakton Street.

At least new First Ward Ald. Joe Sweeney and Second Ward Ald. Rich DiPietro voted “No” on the Napleton change, although DiPietro flipped over to the “Yes” side and supported a B to R zoning change for the Audrey’s property.

Ironically, these changes were passed after the Council heard approximately 30 residents complain about flooding problems.  And several of the speakers noted that “something has changed” to make flooding more common than it used to be – a comment heard from residents every time flooding is discussed.

If we’re looking for “what has changed,” how about: “We’re losing too much green space (i.e., grass) to oversized structures”?  Or: “We’re adding too many residential units for our antiquated sewer system to handle”? 

These same concerns were expressed prior to the addition of approximately 200 residential units to a few square blocks of Uptown where there formerly was none.  We wonder exactly how much additional sewer capacity – if any – was added to the system in order to account for the evacuation of the sewerage generated by those units which, notably, are located at the highest point of the City. 

Don’t get us wrong.  We are big fans of the “residential character” of Park Ridge, although our taste in “residential character” runs more toward single-family houses.  But residences don’t generate sales taxes, nor do they generate property taxes at the same higher rate of commercial property.  So gratuitously converting B parcels to R sure seems like shooting ourselves in both feet for no good reason. 

Residences, however, are the “low-hanging fruit” when it comes to sales and profit for developers. And the higher-density, multi-family residences are the lowest of that low-hanging fruit.

Park Ridge continues to have a budget that is $2 million in deficit, and growing…thanks to even more spending by City Staff, blessed by the City Council, without any increase in revenues.  Where’s the revenue going to come from to fill that hole, much less to help pay for things like flooding relief?  We don’t know.  And neither does City Staff or the Council, apparently. 

That’s why turning business property into residential without any kind of game plan is the kind of narrow, shortsighted thinking that not only won’t provide any solutions, but which actually raises more questions than it answers.

Yesterday’s Herald-Advocate story on Monday night’s special City Council meeting (“Flood control measures get deluge of support,” June 30) – which reportedly lasted 5-1/2 hours and was packed with people whose homes have flooding problems – presents an informative study in contrasts between the leadership styles of Mayor Dave Schmidt and our Public Works Director, Wayne Zingsheim.

Schmidt blamed the City’s staff and its elected officials, including himself, for having neglected the City’s sewer system over the past several years, noting that residents “are justified in being upset with the inaction by city government over the past few years.” 

Zingsheim, on the other hand, took the typical bureaucrat approach.  First he blamed too much rain falling too quickly, and then pointed to other suburbs (like Elk Grove Village) who also had problems.  Memo to Zinger: the incompetence or ineffectiveness of other towns in dealing with civic problems doesn’t excuse your own.

And just in case those alibis weren’t enough, Zingsheim also blamed the residents themselves for being ignorant of our sewer system and how it works…or doesn’t. 

“The public needs more education on certain issues,” he insisted.

We agree, Wayne, and that “education” effort should have been started by you last September, when we suffered millions of dollars of flood damage even as many residents wondered about the mysterious (but welcome) drainage of their basements between – as best we recall – 9:30 and 10:00 a.m. the morning of September 13, 2008.

Maybe that’s why so many of us believe in “mysterious valves” whose opening or closing is the difference between inches and feet of water in our basements.  And why many of us wonder whether our relief sewers are working…or whether we even have relief sewers on our block.

Of course, because of the non-existent Wayne Zingsheim educate-the-public initiative, we can’t see for ourselves (like, for example, on the City’s website) exactly what streets or alleys in Park Ridge actually have relief sewers.  Do you have such a map, Wayne?  If so, why isn’t it posted so all of us ignorant residents can check it out?

According to the H-A article, Zingsheim also thinks residents should do their own flood control by installing overhead sewers and other flood prevention devices.  That’s one way of avoiding accountability for years of bureaucratic inaction on the problem, but don’t those systems increase the sewer and flooding problems for the system as a whole, and for those residents who can’t currently afford such systems?

Unfortunately for all those residents of Park Ridge whose homes may be their single largest investment, City government has done little-to-nothing over the past several years to understand and effectively address the symptoms or the causes of a sewer system that seemingly everyone agrees is antiquated and inadequate, or to address an electrical power delivery system that is so undependable as to make private electrical generators the newest status symbol.

That’s because any reasonable solution to the flooding problem will require a big bond issue and higher taxes to pay for it, which is going to be a tough sell in a down economy and with a City staff and Council that think a $2 million deficit budget is “balanced.”  And they aren’t nearly as fun to talk about as redevelopment projects that involve paving over even more green space, and adding hundreds of additional residential units to an already overtaxed sewer system.

Which is why converting B-1 space to “R” space is something than shouldn’t be done on a whim, or because a handful of residents finally get a rise out of an otherwise-inert alderman.  But that’s a discussion for another day…this Friday, to be exact.