A Call to Action: The Post Office Site Survey
The Post Office is gone and the corner at 512 Chestnut sits empty. The Village is weighing six concepts for the site — and wants your input before the survey closes Friday, July 31.
This is a generational decision about public land in the middle of downtown — one that will help define the future of our community. It's worth a few minutes of yours. The Village survey is open until Friday, July 31. Please don't delay — be heard.
A clean slate at 512 Chestnut
For the first time in four decades, the corner at 512 Chestnut Street is empty. The post office has moved to 586 Lincoln Avenue, the old building has been demolished, and the Village is restoring the site to interim green space.
The demolition and restoration ran under a contract of roughly $585,000 with A Lamp Concrete Contractors, approved by the Village Council in March. The Village has said the new lawn won't be publicly accessible until late summer, after the sod settles. What replaces it, longer term, is still an open question.
A consultant team from Teska Associates has put a range of preliminary concepts in front of the community, and the Village is gathering feedback before bringing options to the Village Council.
What Winnetka is really weighing
The six concepts aren't just design choices; each answers the site's central tension differently. A few things the Village is trying to balance make the trade-offs clear:
Money and the capital squeeze. The Village is carrying a 2026 capital plan near $39.5 million for roads, water mains, stormwater and more. At the October 2025 study session, President Dearborn said cost can't be ignored given other substantial capital needs. An open-space concept spends money; a building can help earn it.
Revenue vs. amenity. Whether to allow private development on the site to help fund the public space is the single split that drives most of the cost differences on the boards.
Public parking. The lot doubles as public parking for the Elm Street district (258 spaces today). The concepts range from no change (Concept 1), to a cut of 32 spaces (2), to a net gain of 24 with underground parking (3), to net losses of 13, 37 and 50 once the new development's own demand is counted (4, 5, 6).
Open space and vitality. Open space ranges up to roughly 90,000 square feet; Concept 1 keeps it at 19,300, and the rest land near 25,600. The building concepts trade some green for evening activity and revenue.
Housing for downsizers. Only Concepts 5 and 6 add homes (24 and 36) — a genuine split the Council has not resolved, and one that might help Winnetka's housing needs for both young and old.
How to read the numbers. "Gross change" is total parking spaces built versus the 258 today; "net change" subtracts the new parking the development itself will use, so it's the better guide to what's left for the public. Dollar and "developer interest" readings are the survey's conceptual estimates — not bids or budgets — and could change with future designs.
Now is the moment
Once the feedback is in, Teska will analyze it and identify the top one or two concepts, expected to reach the Village Council as soon as October. After that, the menu narrows.
If residential matters, if gathering matters, if open space matters to you, or parking does — this is the critical round where your voice can be heard.
Sources & notes
Village of Winnetka / Teska Associates online survey concept boards (helloinput.org, via Social Pinpoint) for all six concepts and their figures; The Record North Shore (Peter Kaspari, June 10 and March 6, 2026; October 15, 2025 study-session coverage including President Dearborn and the 2025 Caucus Survey). Note: the earlier Post Office survey (#1) and this concept-feedback survey are separate instruments whose numbers should not be merged.