In Skokie, even a long-vacant school site is enough to split the room. This week, village trustees narrowly approved a plan to replace the former Arie Crown Hebrew Day School on Main Street with 68 rental townhomes, clearing the way for a three-story development that some neighbors say is just too big for the block.
The project calls for 24 two-bedroom and 44 three-bedroom units, each with its own two-car garage, wrapped around a central green space where the shuttered school building now stands. Fans of the plan see it as breathing life into a dormant 3.9-acre property. Critics see a wall of townhomes looming over their backyards.
Project details and site improvements
According to the village’s staff materials, the development would sit on roughly 3.9 acres at 4600 Main Street, include 158 parking spaces and two EV stalls, and add four below-ground stormwater chambers while relocating utilities underground. The design uses permeable pavers in guest parking areas and carves out three small public park spaces on the site.
The plan also seeks minor zoning relief, trimming a portion of a standard 24-foot drive aisle down to 20 feet. Village staff recommended approval of the project subject to conditions, as outlined in the Village of Skokie staff report.
Board split and neighborhood pushback
The Village Board signed off on the site plan in a 4-2 vote, with Trustees Jim Iverson, Alison Pure Slovin, Kimani Levy and Keith Robinson backing the project and Trustees Gail Schechter and Lissa Levy voting no, according to The Record North Shore.
Residents from nearby Elm Terrace and Kilpatrick Avenue lined up at the microphone to object, arguing that rows of three-story townhomes would overlook their backyards, pack too many units onto the parcel and funnel more cars, delivery trucks and visitors onto an already tight stretch of Main. One nearby resident warned that introducing 158 cars “into one square block is concerning” during public comment, the outlet reported.
Affordable housing fight
Under Skokie’s Inclusionary Housing Ordinance, a project of this size must either reserve 5 percent of its units as affordable housing — four units in this case — or the developer can instead pay a fee of $100,000 per required affordable unit. Fulton Street Companies asked to meet that obligation with a $450,000 fee-in-lieu payment, a number carried over from the project’s 2024 approvals.
The board agreed to the fee-in-lieu option as a condition of site plan approval. That move did not sit well with some trustees and neighbors, who argued the payment would not meaningfully expand affordable housing options in Skokie and effectively clears the way for a fully market-rate townhome complex.
Developer timeline and rents
Fulton Street co-founder Ross Babel told reporters the firm hopes to begin construction “hopefully” this summer and estimated the build could take roughly 18 to 24 months, though he said it was too early to pin down likely rents for the townhomes, according to The Record North Shore.
Babel and Arie Crown’s leadership have argued that the financing structure tied to the fee-in-lieu payment is what makes the school’s sale and the redevelopment penciled out financially. Opponents counter that the result looks a lot like luxury rentals replacing a long-standing community asset. Supporters respond that returning the site to productive use would restore property tax revenue and pay for infrastructure upgrades along this stretch of Main Street.
Where the project goes next
Before any townhomes start rising, Fulton Street still has several procedural hurdles. The developer must close on the property, secure building permits and obtain a final Certificate of Appropriateness from the Appearance Commission, along with other administrative approvals.
Fulton Street picked up the revived 68-townhome proposal after a previous developer backed out, marking the company’s first push outside Chicago proper, according to The Real Deal. If those steps stay on track, the vacant school site could transition into the permitting and construction phases that will dramatically change the feel of this slice of Main Street in the coming years.
