The Site Plan and Zoning Amendment were approved with a vote of 6-1 at the meeting on Monday night, despite MASSIVE local opposition, over 700 letters, 1,200+ signatures on the petition from Skokie residents (and over 6,800 overall) and nearly 1.5 hours of public comments - all in opposition to the tower. The path forward, if there is any, is less clear today - but we are not convinced this is over. So please keep signing and sharing.
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We the undersigned insist that the Village of Skokie (IL) uphold its environmental responsibility and regulatory authority by demanding that Carvana Corporation match their level of bird strike mitigation to the severity of the threat their car-vending tower presents at its proposed Harms Woods location. 
 
On January 6th, the Village of Skokie's Planning Commission voted to approve Carvana's petition to build one of their company’s tallest all-glass car-vending towers directly across from Harms Woods with woefully inadequate bird strike mitigation provisions.  Carvana suggested the absolute minimum amount of bird protection was acceptable and claimed their offering was endorsed by the minimum standards which do not factor in the unique lighting and location features of this project that will magnify their tower’s threat factor.  They took the minimum recommendations of a vendor they chose to sell them the glass treatment product for the tower, who was not qualified to make a complete assessment of mitigation needs for this structure. Conversely, there were actual experts from American Bird Conservancy, Illinois Department of Natural Resources, Chicago Bird Collision Monitors and an architect who has worked on bird-safe buildings around the country who have testified and/or written letters stating that the mitigation being put forward by Carvana was insufficient. 
 
The Carvana car-vending tower would be unlike any existing structure in Skokie: a 14-story, all-glass tower that would be illuminated every night of the year, next to a fragile preserve and in the migratory path of the millions of birds that pass through our area each spring and fall. The Carvana tower is the first proposed structure adjacent to this section of Harms Woods since it was designated a Nature Preserve in 2019 - the highest level of protection for land in the state of Illinois.
 
With such a quantity of glass, a building like the Carvana tower can only reduce its threat to birds if all of its facades are covered by visual markers alerting them to avoid the structure which will be invisible or reflective throughout the day. Additionally, lighting from within the tower must be extinguished between the critical nighttime hours of midnight and 7am during migration to avoid luring birds to its dangerous glass surfaces.
 
The Board of Trustees will vote on February 7th.  Approval to build the Carvana Tower adjacent to this sensitive and protected location, along a critical migratory path should be denied. However, if allowed, Carvana must be required to provide sufficient and easily attainable bird strike mitigation as set forth below:

1. Cover exterior glass surfaces on the entire tower with collision prevention window films or markers (current condition is to cover only approximately the lower third of the structure - slightly over 50'); and
2. All lights that are not needed for safety to be turned off during Spring and Fall migration from midnight until 7am.

Please sign this petition and join the effort to save thousands to tens of thousands of birds over the life of this proposed tower. In the words of noted ornithologist, Dr. David Willard: “The Carvana plan for an all-glass building that is lit all night and situated near a nature preserve is a recipe for bird disaster.”