Garfield Developer Thanks Residents, Challenges Officials
As developer of the Garfield in downtown Hinsdale, we applaud residents for their candor in the recent villagewide survey. They have expressed strong support for the very elements embodied by The Garfield, which received approval only to have a newly constituted board seek to “undo” the consent.
Inevitably, we will receive legal approval to construct the project at Garfield and First. But why not now, when the survey of 2,100 residents reveals overwhelming support for a mixed-use project of a size and type we have proposed? Seventy-seven percent endorse a three-story building in the downtown area and 60-plus percent support condos, which are part of our plan.
Is the village board representing the community, or the personal interests of a select few? Officials have a responsibility to faithfully and ethically represent their constituents, who clamor for the Garfield in other ways too.
For example, in the survey, the village more than two-thirds of residents believe the village should do more to provide housing for older residents. Plus, they suggest that some of that housing come to downtown.
Conveniently, the board has used other survey results to justify asking voters to approve a 1 percent sales tax increase.
This tax hike discussion heated up when it was discovered Hinsdale’s general reserve fund was below acceptable levels by about $350,000, or roughly equal to the amount the village spent last year alone on litigation fighting the Garfield.
We challenge officials to be consistent in their response to survey results. If they do, they will drop their legally dubious fight to halt the Garfield’s inevitable development. Such a move would also eliminate at least one of the village’s own self-inflicted financial wounds.
Now there’s something that would get a “strongly support” rating from just about any common-sense resident.
Matt Baron, Anno Domini IV spokesman