How Arlington Heights hung a welcome sign for the Chicago Bears

After Churchill Downs Inc. announced plans in February to close Arlington International Racecourse and sell one of the most coveted properties in the northwest suburbs, local officials recognized an opportunity.

As the company collected bids for the site, the Arlington Heights Village Board began work on revamping the existing zoning laws to ensure the winning proposal shared its vision for the parcel. They banned certain businesses, put in eco-friendly regulations and made it difficult to sell the property in separate chunks.

Planning records show Arlington Heights officials only offered two specific potential uses for the property as they revamped the development regulations: a stadium or horse track, the latter of which seemed improbable given Churchill Downs’ intention of selling the property to nonracing interests.

The village staff also recommended elected officials bar the property from being subdivided, meaning it would need a potential owner with deep enough pockets — the Chicago Bears are worth an estimated $4 billion, according to Forbes — to buy the entire property and come up with a master plan to develop it.

“We set the stage so that developers and investors would know what we were looking for, and that there were some things that we don’t want,” Charles Witherington-Perkins, the village’s director of planning and community development, recently told the Tribune.

Against that backdrop, the Village Board essentially hung a welcome sign for the Chicago Bears.

Four days before the vote on new zoning regulations for the property, the team, which has toyed with a move to the suburb for decades, announced it had submitted a bid for the racetrack. Team President Ted Phillips personally called Mayor Tom Hayes to alert him to the organization’s tentative plans to redevelop the property.

“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the village of Arlington Heights,” Hayes told trustees.

Last month, the Bears announced an agreement to buy the racetrack for $197.2 million in anticipation of potentially building a larger, more modern stadium. The deal unquestionably bolstered the long-held belief that the financially sound team was the best candidate to build a sports arena in keeping with the village’s vision and then make sure it didn’t become a taxpayer liability like the NOW Arena in nearby Hoffman Estates.

Village officials took over that arena, originally called the Sears Center, in 2009 after its private owners threatened to walk away. Taxpayers have paid tens of millions of dollars to keep the facility afloat since that time, records show.

Though fans have been vocal about what amenities they would like to see at a more modern stadium — retractable roof, public transit options, restaurants within walking distance — the team has been reticent to share its vision for the property, with the tentative deal unlikely to close before 2022. The village’s planning department records, however, offer the best indication yet as to what the team could do with the site and what the village of Arlington Heights would likely demand.

“It is important to note the village does not make the unilateral decision on what does and what does not occur on this site,” Arlington Heights Village Manager Randall Recklaus told trustees in June. “The village can, however, prohibit uses that it finds to not be in the best interest of the community.”

For nearly 20 years, the property had been zoned as a general service, wholesale and motor vehicle district that encouraged warehouses and showrooms. None of that, however, will be allowed without a special exemption from the village.

The new zoning regulations prohibit all kinds of businesses that take up significant space, including repair shops, kiddie parks, design showrooms, mortuaries, contractors office, tool and die shops and recreation vehicle sales shops. In an effort to establish a high-end atmosphere, village officials also banned businesses such as pawn shops, secondhand stores, car washes, adult businesses and currency exchanges from operating on the site.

“Certain current permitted uses and the current zoning bulk standards are not conducive to a mixed use, high quality, one of a kind redevelopment opportunity that the racecourse presents,” Bill Enright, the village’s assistant director of planning and community development, wrote in a June 2021 memorandum.

Records show village officials also will require an eco-friendly approach to the development, including permeable pavers, green roofs, solar energy panels, electric vehicle charging stations and vegetated, shallow, landscaped depressions designed to capture stormwater runoff. The site also must include the creation of a central park-type amenity, bike paths, additional green space around the nearby Metra station and the preservation of the narrow park that runs along Salt Creek.

Any new use probably also would include housing, stores, dining, entertainment venues and a park, according to planning records.

The village’s decision to dramatically limit the future uses at the track property has the backing of Jon Ridler, the executive director of the Arlington Heights Chamber of Commerce. He described the move as “proactive” and said there are places in town where manufacturing businesses could hang a shingle.

“They are making it very clear what the village would not like to see there, and what they want to see, which is residential, entertainment and hospitality uses to create a really vibrant area,” Ridler said.

There were several public votes on the new zoning regulations over the summer. The most important occurred in late June at the Village Board’s first in-person meeting since the pandemic began.

Only one resident spoke out about the issue, saying he was against a stadium and wanted the property to be converted into open space.

“I stand for open minds, open meetings and open spaces,” Arlington Heights resident Marc Adelman said. “I want to make a plea about doing something different.”

The mayor, who just days earlier had welcomed the Bears’ interest, said the zoning change was the village’s best shot at dictating the property’s future.

“Our goal is to put the property to its highest and best use,” Hayes said.

Adelman was unconvinced.

“Highest and best use doesn’t mean highest and most profitable use,” he said. “That’s not the same thing.”

Both the Village Board and Plan Commission unanimously approved the new zoning regulations.