We are pleased to have this opportunity to provide you with the initial feedback of the Carmen-Winona Block Club to the original concept for the proposed redevelopment of The Admiral at the Lake properties located at 909 West Foster Avenue and 900-910 West Winona Street. Over the past couple weeks, the Block Club has met twice with the Admiral’s representatives, Admiral President and CEO Glenn Brichacek, Gordon Gillmore of the architectural firm Perkins+Will, and zoning attorney Graham Grady of the law firm Bell, Boyd & Lloyd LLC. In addition, the Block Club has held two meetings with the residents and property owners of our neighborhood, as well as held smaller subcommittee meetings. The neighborhood response has been outstanding with over 131 people in attendance across the full Block Club meeting with the Admiral and the two Block Club meetings, which preceded and followed that Admiral meeting. This uncharacteristically overwhelming response has provided the officers of the Block Club with confidence the feedback we are sharing with you is representative of a large majority of our constituents and these constituents intend to remain active participants in the oversight of this redevelopment project as it progresses.

Please understand the following feedback is based on a concept the Admiral is referring to as its "original" plan. Even as we met with the Admiral for the second time, the Admiral indicated this concept had evolved further, but the Admiral was not willing to share such details with us. They have been elusive to specific answers to our questions. We have also seen the response from the Edgewater Development Corporation, indicating certain aspects of the plan had been shared with them, which had not been shared with our Block Club. We require additional information and details of their plan before we can make conclusive judgments. Therefore, we hold the Admiral responsible for returning to us with as much specificity of their plan as possible as each design phase progresses and for providing us with reasonable time to consider the changes and provide you with our revised feedback.

At the present time, the residents and property owners represented by the Carmen-Winona Block Club are unequivocally opposed to the Admiral’s original concept to raze its existing buildings and construct a larger-scale campus along Winona, Marine, and Foster. Our concerns and objections to the concept primarily fall into four categories: zoning; traffic, parking, and environmental impacts; architectural and historical fit with our neighborhood; and economic impact on our community. [For instance, the Block Club endeavors to preserve and further its ongoing efforts to calm traffic along Winona and improve the quiet, residential, family-oriented feel of the block. We have concerns about the scale and appearance of the proposed buildings relative existing zoning and neighboring buildings. The Block Club is also concerned about the provisioning for parking, the impact of additional traffic, and the impact on existing infrastructure from not only additional future residents and patients, but also additional employees, guests, contractors, and the general public solicited by the Admiral to patronize their proposed public doctors’ offices, dining venues, retail shops, health center, and community education programs. Another issue is the plan to raze a residential apartment building to enlarge the Admiral’s gated, private community and the economic impact on property values and the local economy’s retail establishments, especially considering the Admiral’s very insular history in our neighborhood. These are simply highlights of our Block Club’s more exhaustive list of specific issues.]

The Block Club remains in favor of considerate development of our neighborhood. We believe our concerns are congruent with the mission statements of the local chambers of commerce and development corporations, as well as your development philosophy. We would like to have the opportunity to sit down with you in the next few weeks so our subcommittees may present our concerns and objections to you in more detail and to provide support for our position. We will follow-up with you and your office in the next few days to arrange such meeting.

We look forward to meeting with you at that time.

Respectfully,