Wilmette officials ended up going back to the starting point after a “thorough evaluation” of potential sites for a new police station being proposed for the town.
The village announced in an email on Friday, Oct. 25, that it wants to build the new station at the same location as the current station at 710 Ridge Road, a nearly one-acre site adjacent to Howard Park.
The site and proposed station will be the subject of an open house (6 p.m.) and Public Safety Commission meeting (7 p.m.) Nov. 14 at Village Hall, 1200 Wilmette Avenue.
“Frankly, that’s the only real option we have left,” said Village President Mike Bryman. “We are a completely built-out community, and we don’t really have vacant lots or industrial buildings that could be adaptively reused. I did.”
An email sent by the village to residents lists seven properties as sites the village seriously considered before eliminating them. Private properties Imperial Motors (721 Green Bay Road), Scott Funeral Home (1100 Greenleaf), and Treasure Island (911 Ridge Road) are all reportedly too small for the project, and Sacred Heart Monastery (Elmwood・Avenue 2221) is reportedly too expensive.
The village considered Congregation Beth Hillel’s land before the park district purchased it, but officials say negotiations with the district and local schools over the publicly owned land were unsuccessful.
The closest suitor was the family that owned Higgins’ vacant land in the 200 block of Ridge Road. There you’ll find a historic abandoned building, once home to the Hubert Hoffman & Sons Greenhouse. However, negotiations recently reached an impasse.
“We engaged in lengthy negotiations and collaborative negotiations between the two parties,” Bryman said. “Ultimately, we were too far apart financially and in other elements of the deal to make it happen.”
Bryman said adding to the current police station site would impact police operations, but it was not yet clear by how much. The on-site project will not impact Artis Senior Living’s residences at 335 Ridge Road, just north of the site. However, it may invade the southwest part of Howard Park.
He said the process is a long process and the village is committed to working with the community on the final product.
“We are concerned about the potential for intrusion into Howard Park and it is important for us to work closely with stakeholders on this matter,” Bryman said. “We will continue to work closely with neighbors and users on solutions that meet public safety needs and limit impacts to the park as much as possible.”
review
As The Record previously reported, Wilmette officials first renewed conversations about a new police station in May 2023, when the board approved a needs assessment and land use study.
Since then, the proposed station, with an initial price tag of $55 million to nearly $60 million, has been the subject of nearly 20 public meetings. The village has created a dedicated webpage for this project.
In February, FGM Architects released a study recommending a new police facility that would be more than 60,000 square feet. Village officials say the size and scope of the proposed project has decreased since the original projections. The latest recommendation for the facility is just over 54,000 square feet and has a preliminary budget estimate of $51.4 million.
The next step is to put the contract for conceptual design services on the Village Board’s agenda.
At a meeting in late August, village officials said they could fund more than $50 million in public facilities investments without increasing property taxes to service the debt.
During the meeting, Eric Hallgren, assistant village manager for the Village of Wilmette, presented the trustees with the results of a detailed financial analysis showing that the village could utilize a significant portion of its reserves for the project. Hallgren said the village’s recommended reserve level is $12.2 million, or a 30 percent reserve goal. Based on projections provided in August, the village expects to exceed its target savings level by approximately $9.3 million.
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