Winnetka Trustees to Consider Green Bay Road Parking Lot Proposal

Winnetka trustees could vote on a proposed parking lot on Green Bay Road as soon as the June 18 meeting and have so far reacted favorably to the proposal saying the need of filling the former Gap store is more of a priority than the loss of tax dollars associated with demolishing two buildings to attract one tenant, Winnetka Talk reported.

A Highland Park developer is proposing to bring in an upscale anchor tenant to the Hubbard Woods business district and put up a parking lot at 929 and 931 Green Bay Road.

Initial parking lot plans calls for a fountain and bench located at the parking lot entrance with vehicles entering the lot off Green Bay Road via a driveway and exiting to the east along Tower Court and ultimately to the north on Merril Street, the newspaper reported.

Terry Dason, executive director of the Winnetka-Northfield Chamber of Commerce, has said in the past that she likes the plan because it could bring in more business for the district—but Marla Reisman, one of the two retailers that would have to relocate, is not happy with the plan. In May she put a sign with a Joni Mitchell quote in the window of her store, which reads, “Don’t it always seem to go that you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone? They paved paradise and put up a parking lot.”