Survey #2 closes July 31. Six concepts for the post office site, six price tags — and a set of cost dials that do not quite say what the renderings imply. Here is the whole decision, and how it got this late.

The Village bought 512 Chestnut Street in 1982. The 1986 comprehensive plan identified the parcel as a redevelopment opportunity. And in 2008, Ed Woodbury — then the village president — told Better Magazine that the Village had bought the land intending it to become a commercial development. Fast forward: it has been home to a post office and a parking lot ever since, and today it is a lawn.

What follows is a record of blue sky ideas, commissioned plans, proposals, debates and studies. An ad-hoc committee formed around 2005 to plan for the end of the postal lease. A push to move the library there gathered momentum in 2007. The Village adopted a Downtown Master Plan in November 2016 after a year-long community process, and the Winnetka Futures 2040 comprehensive plan in April 2023. In 2022, then-Village President Chris Rintz proposed a public plaza with gathering space and room for small concerts and markets, invoking the village’s 1921 comprehensive plan by architect Edward Bennett; all eight residents who spoke that night supported it. In 2024, staff commissioned conceptual plaza designs — and then, per the Council’s own October 2025 packet, no further discussion or action occurred.

The Village survey is open until Friday, July 31. Take the Post Office Survey →