Mayor Lori Lightfoot has established an advisory council that will keep developers abreast of community reactions to the plan to build a $1.7 billion Bally’s Casino in downtown Chicago. In a release last week, the mayor said wants to give city residents the opportunity to provide input on the plan.
“Since beginning the process to secure a Chicago casino, my administration has remained dedicated to ensuring our residents have every opportunity to share their thoughts and concerns about it,” Lightfoot said in a statement. “This Community Advisory Council will create a tangible space for this important engagement and allow community stakeholders of all kinds to have a meaningful impact before, during, and after the casino’s construction.” c
Included in the organization will be residents and community groups in neighborhoods close to the casino site. She will also include experts in the disciplines that will be crucial to the development of a casino, and will be controlled by a host of different city agencies, including the Chicago Department of Planning and Development, the Mayor’s Office of Community Engagement, the Chicago Department of Transportation, and the city’s chief financial officer, Jennie Huang Bennett.
The council will be tasked with gathering community reaction to various elements of the plan throughout the process, and have input on both the temporary site and the permanent casino until it opens.
Last week, environmental advocates and others see the future casino as an opportunity to properly develop its Chicago River frontage, including green space and easy public access.
For example, Jen Masengarb, executive director at the American Institute of Architects Chicago, said, “I’m stating the obvious here, but the transformation of that stretch of the river between Function A, what it was, and Function B, what it will be, is going to be one of the most dramatic switches that we’ve seen in the river.”
Currently, the future casino site is occupied by a huge printing plant, the Freedom Center, which faces the river with a stark brick wall and a massive private parking lot. Located there is “the saddest park ever,” featuring one picnic table, Masengarb said.
Blair Kamin, the Pulitzer Prize-winning former architecture critic for the Chicago Tribune stated, “The Freedom Center was just awful. It had no connection with the river other than, I guess, receiving paper for the presses. Great public works are multi-generational projects. It’s taken generations to get where we are today so the riverfront is like a 50-year, 30-year, 20-year timeline. But the casino is a huge piece and an important one of connecting the downtown” to points north.
City officials agree. Maurice Cox, commissioner of the Department of Planning and Development, said, “The casino district now creates a destination. So, for me, I feel like that’s the next thing. Let’s establish a green agenda and character of the casino district. And that will then inform the way the rest of the river should develop.”
According to renderings released by Bally’s, the riverside portions of the site will resemble the popular Riverwalk, with bars and dining options along the promenade. Wide steps descend from the casino building’s glass walls to the river edge, where water taxis can dock, and a terraced park features fountains and green space.
Margaret Frisbie, executive director of the advocacy group Friends of the Chicago River, said, “There was a lot of outrage about a casino on the lakefront. However, if you look at that particular location now, it’s a seawall and a big building. So, if that turns into natural habitat and public access, I see that as a win in the long term, in the bigger picture.”
Joyen Vakil, senior vice president of design and development for Bally’s, noted the renderings “are very true to the general flavor that we want to introduce for the riverwalk environment. Having said that, they were conceptual. It’s fair to say that, like with every rendering, they’re going to evolve.”
The changes partly will be due to input from community groups. Vakil said, “We’ve been listening to what they have to say. And we are trying to incorporate as much of it as possible.”
The River North Residents Association, for example, including more than 90 buildings across the river from the casino site, has eased off its initial opposition to the casino.
Association President Brian Israel said, “We turned to trying to improve the project in a variety of ways that would lessen negative impacts” and ensure provisions for riverfront access and green space will remain. The group told Bally’s it opposed a proposed outdoor concert venue due to the noise and traffic. Although that venue is still included in Bally’s plans, Vakil said, “We are sensitive to what community groups have mentioned about nuisance” and are working to help make it “well-received among community members.”
Another issue was the planned pedestrian bridge, connecting the bustling casino site to what is now a quiet River North park. Vakil said, “Based on community input, we decided that the bridge was not a good idea. So, we’ve eliminated that from the project.”
Vakil noted Bally’s executives and project designers spent an entire day touring existing Chicago riverfront sites for inspiration. The river “has certainly not been an afterthought. It is an integral part of the design of the project,” he said.
Bally’s officials also have met with Frisbie’s river advocacy group and plans to meet with public-private advisory panels, the city’s River Ecology and Governance Task Force and its Committee on Design. Frisbie said,” We talked about the design solutions we’d like to see, like cutting down sea walls to minimum heights and slopes so that you can really get down to the water and have a natural edge actually near the water as much as possible.”
A more finalized plan will be included in Bally’s zoning application, which will face approval from the Chicago Plan Commission, the city council zoning committee and ultimately the full city council. Before these steps, the Illinois Gaming Board must approve Bally’s casino license application, which it filed in August.
Bally’s delivered a $40 million payment toward the project but still needs approval from the Illinois Gaming Board, and then must endure the city’s extensive planning and zoning approval process.
