Action Alert: Tell Skokie to Deny the Carvana Permit

-Cover graphic courtesy Bob Dolgan

Tell Skokie’s Board of Trustees to deny a permit for a new building that will be dangerous for birds by Feb. 6

The Village of Skokie Board of Trustees likely will decide on Feb. 7 whether to approve construction of a 14-story all-glass car-vending tower by online used-car sales company Caravana Co.

If approved, the Carvana Tower will be located across the street from Harms Flatwoods, a designated Illinois Nature Preserve, and will pose a significant danger for birds.

The proposed Carvana Tower is a thin glass tower with open floor plans. This makes the building susceptible to bird collisions as the entire tower appears to birds as transparent. This this effect is also known as a “fly-through" condition similar to glass walkways or glass bus shelters. Birds are unable to see the glass as a solid surface and hit it headfirst, resulting in injury or death.

The Carvana Tower will be illuminated at night which also is detrimental for the millions of migrating songbirds that fly at night through this area during spring and fall. They are drawn to lights on the ground on cloudy nights because they can’t navigate by the stars and also suffer collisions then.

Opposition to the Carvana project is broad including American Bird Conservancy; Chicago Bird Collision Monitors; Chicago Ornithological Society; Jeanne Gang, a Chicago-based architect who incorporates bird-safe building features in the buildings she designs; and other organizations and individuals.

According to avian biologists and bird conservationists, the Carvana Tower should not be approved as proposed because of the ecological consequences to birds.

On January 6, Skokie’s Planning Commission approved the Carvana Tower proposal with minor concessions to bird safety – dimming lights at night and adding a pattern of adhesive markers to only the lower floors of the building.

These mediation efforts are not good enough to protect birds from harm at the Carvana site, said sources.

If Skokie trustees approve the construction of the Carvana Tower, bird conservationists insist that the company must be required to provide comprehensive bird-strike mitigation including the treatment of all glass. Turning off all lights at night during spring and fall nighttime migration periods between midnight and 7:00 a.m. is essential.

What you can do:

Here are some ways to express opposition to the Carvana Tower proposal that you, friends and family can do right now.

Submit comments to the Village of Skokie Board at this email address by Feb. 6:
publiccomments@skokie.org.

Sign the change.org petition at the following website, which will provide more information about the Carvana Towerproject:
https://www.change.org/ProtectSkokieBirds

Thank you for speaking up in favor of birds and nature.