A committee on Environmental Protection
and Energy will now come to order.
Thank you all for your patience.
Um, today there's one item that will be presented
before the committee, bird Friendly Building Design
in the city of Chicago.
And, uh, we will begin with a roll call to establish quorum,
uh, chairperson Hadden.
Present Vice Chair Knudsen
Alder LaSpada Alder Ramirez.
Alder Lopez. Alder Tavares
Alder Scho Lopez.
Alder Cruz Alder Rodriguez Sanchez
Alder Conway Alder.
Riley Alder Lawson Alder.
Clay Alder. Martin Alder. Mana Howorth.
Fantastic. Um, uh, I wanna acknowledge, um,
non committee member Alder Talia Faroh, thank you
for joining us today, and we don't have any Rule
50 nines.
Um, so being eight members present, we have a quorum.
Um, fantastic.
We've got a really, um, informational hearing today.
And before we get into the meat of it, we are going to
begin public comment period.
So public comment is limited to 30 minutes.
Um, out of respect for everybody's time,
each speaker is limited to three minutes.
We actually had 11 people sign up. 12.
No more guys. We had 12.
We're just gonna let everybody speak, um, uh, as a thank you
for your time and your patience in showing up today.
Um, so we are gonna begin with Elaine Carlson
and, um, if this is your first time, uh, commenting,
you'll find your timer is gonna be to your left.
Um, and the mic is front and center, and we don't bite.
I get to be first. Um, my name's Elaine Carlson.
I'm a longtime resident of the 27th Ward.
Uh, I have served
as a Chicago Bird collision monitor for nine years.
And the only point that I would like to add to
what you're gonna hear from our panel of experts today is
that this is an important issue, not just to the people
who are here and people who self-identify
as environmentalists, as I pick up birds
downtown in the mornings, I meet so many people
who work there, who live here,
and who are tourists who ask me how can we let this happen?
And it puts me in an awkward position of having to apologize
for the city I love.
We can do better, and that is what I have to tell them.
We, we know how to solve this.
For some reason, we just haven't. So,
So that's What I'd like to resolve here
Today. Thank
you. Thank you so much.
I'm gonna announce the next couple of folks
so that you can prepare.
So we have Alice Hargrave
and then Ruth, uh, Josie Radden Flores,
and then Andrew Burnham.
So Alice Hargrave, Ruth Josie, Radden Flores,
and then Andrew Burnham.
Well, hello. I guess I was, um, extra excited to speak
because I completely forgot
or didn't remember that I signed up to speak.
But I'm thrilled that you called me
because this is a, something I'm very passionate about.
I'm watching the clock. Um, I'm an artist of residents, uh,
a bird collision monitor for a while.
I'm a birds in my neighborhood volunteer,
and I just love how cities
and, um, the environment can cohabitate
and that we can foster, uh, different species
to share the city with us.
There's nothing more beautiful than to hear about, um,
peregrine falcons nesting
of which I witnessed at my artist studio.
And, um, yes, I'm all for this.
We've got to step up and do this. It's just too tragic.
We can't have another night of a thousand birds dead.
It just, I won't, I'm going to cry. Thank you.
Thank you so much. Next up we have
Ruth, followed by Andrew Burnham and Nancy Bigelow.
Good morning. Uh, my name is Ruth Joshi, Radden Flores.
I moved to Chicago in 2014,
and I saw a peregrine falcon kind
of the first day that I arrived.
And, um, it's impressed upon me the extraordinary, um,
riches that this city has being on the Mississippi Flyway.
And, um, I've been a bird collision monitor now for a couple
of years, but I'm also a cultural worker.
I'm a concerned citizen.
I'm a taxpayer, and I am so excited that the,
um, data is clear.
It's in, we have this case,
amazing case study from the improvements at McCormick Place.
There's just no excuse for not doing this.
Now the city has an opportunity to take a leadership role
to join the ranks of other leadership cities
that are doing something about this.
And, um, likewise,
after the event at McCormick Place, um,
I had friends from the coast from all over the country
after the New York Times coverage asking
like, what can we do?
How can this be improved? This is horrific.
And, um, now that we know better, we can do better,
and we absolutely should,
and people will celebrate us for doing that.
Um, so I support our panelists
and let's do the right thing. Thanks.
Thank you so much. Next up we have
Andrew, followed by Nancy Bigelow,
followed by Madeline Murphy.
Thank you. My name is Andrew Burnham.
In my professional career,
I'm an environmental scientist focused on reducing air
pollution and greenhouse gases
that impact both human health and the health of our planet.
However, after living in Chicago for 25 years,
I only recently came
to appreciate the amazing wildlife this city has to offer.
During the pandemic, I fell in love with Monte
and Rose, the plovers at Montrose Beach
and what our citizens were doing to protect them.
I started doing nature walks through the Park district
and grew a greater appreciation for this amazing city.
Um, with that, I started
to notice things in my neighborhood.
I live in the South Loop, uh, of birds near some
of the new construction, um, around McCormick Place.
And then as other folks have mentioned, the death
of a thousand birds in one night at MCC McCormick Place
really just struck, uh, struck me and,
and struck, um, internationally of like what we
can do, um, negatively to wildlife.
And, um, it, it highlighted
that Chicago is the deadliest city in the nation for birds.
Um, and as folks have said, there are solutions.
That's the good news.
And the, the retrofits at McCormick Place have shown
that you can either do it afterwards
or you can do it before.
And it's just much more economical to come up with a plan
to, uh, address these buildings before they're constructed.
Um, but that still leaves that there are still a lots
and lots of windows that need to be addressed, um,
and prioritization
of like the key ones should be focused on. So thank you.
Thank you so much. Andrew.
Nancy Bigelow, followed by Madeline Murphy, followed by
Charles Rizzo.
Hi, uh, I'm Nancy Biglow
and I'm a Chicago Bird collision monitor.
And it can be heartbreaking the number of birds
that you see downtown that
after they've hit the windows, it's so unnecessary.
We are the city within a garden.
We should be ashamed that we are allowing this to happen.
These birds not only are an asset to the city ourselves,
birds eat insects.
They're pollinators. But you're thinking
that we are allowing birds that would be going to Canada,
that would be going to, uh, the Caribbean.
We're allowing these to die on our streets.
Uh, this is such an important ordinance.
And, and please take care of this, please.
Thank you Nancy Madeline,
followed by Charles Rizzo, followed by Judy P*****k.
Good morning, members of the city council,
and thank you for your service to our city,
and thank you for allowing me to speak.
My name is Madeline Murphy.
I've lived and worked in the city for 40 years now,
and I volunteered for Chicago Bird Collision monitors
for about, um, eight or nine years now.
The number of injured, crippled dying
and dead birds I have picked up, uh, during the course
of 40 years of working in the loop is easily in the hundreds
and probably in the thousands by now.
And as you are aware
or will become aware as this proceeding goes on, uh,
one third of the world's birds have disappeared
within my lifetime.
And a billion birds are lost every year to bird strikes.
This isn't just a bird issue, this is an issue
for you, for me.
And to borrow a phrase from an old fashioned Irish wedding
blessing, uh, for the generation of children,
on the children of your children, if we lose the birds
and we are facing, I believe, a mass extinction event
by the end of this, uh, century, we lose
so much more than the beauty than the elements of the,
the food chain, than all of the metaphorical uses of birds.
Uh, the ramifications for humans are staggering in terms
of agriculture, uh, rodent control and pest control.
When you think of insect control alone, the types
of diseases, uh, that, um, are currently kept
somewhat in check by the bird population, yellow fever,
which is endemic in many parts of the world.
Malaria, which is endemic throughout, um, Africa, um, Zika,
no one will forget the horror of Zika nine or 10 years ago.
And West Nile virus, which
rears its ugly head every summer here in the city
of Chicago, if we don't do anything,
we are visiting upon the next generations.
This awful, uh, legacy of trying to deal
with this situation, even though it is a preventable issue,
we could be that city.
We need a major city in the United States
to help turn the tide here worldwide
to stop the 1 billion bird annual carnage.
And we can be the one that other cities will turn to
that 10 years from now, or 20
or a generation from now, will cause people
to say it was Chicago
that turned the tide in the United States that caused people
to take up, uh, to sit up
and take notice of this extremely important issue,
as I said, not just for the birds, but for all of us.
So for the birds, for myself, for you,
and for the generation of children, on the children
of our children, please support the
bird friendly building ordinance.
Thank you.
Thank you so much, Madeline.
Next up we have Charles Rizzo, Ms. Charles Rizzo here.
Ah, gotcha. Gotcha, gotcha. All right.
Uh, Judy P*****k, um, followed
by Lois Kimmelman, followed by Sir.
Hi Vargas.
Thank you so much for the opportunity, uh, to speak.
I'm Judy P*****k.
Um, I was the president of the Chicago Board Alliance
until just recently, and I care a lot about, uh, birds.
Uh, the first thing I wanna do is I wanna just ask Ev uh,
you know, it's like a hot day.
It's the middle of the day, so a lot, most
of our supporters are working,
but I would like to ask, uh,
everybody who's in the audience here, who is in favor of
mandatory, um, regulations to, to,
um, save birds to stand up, please.
Okay. Thank you. I just wanted you to see, you know, who,
who all is, uh, who all is here,
and thank you for standing over there too.
Um, yeah, I, um, you know, I think nobody wants
to kill birds, right?
That's just, uh,
but somehow we have not passed this ordinance,
even though we have been work working at it
for really almost 10 years.
Um, and so very disappointing, but,
and you know, it's the developers that are, um,
you know, that have the, the other side of this, right?
And they don't want, um,
they don't want any expenses added.
And I mean, I, I get that. We all get that.
Uh, we, um, we really,
you know, they, they have a good point when they say
that there are so many regulations and,
and so many hurdles to, um, to building in this city.
But let's not take it out on the birds, you know, Chicago,
it's got the most, probably the most migratory birds
of any city in the United States.
And so, you know, we're not,
we're not talking about pigeons and sparrows.
We're, we're talking about warblers and fly catchers
and verios and Orioles and tans
and et cetera, et cetera, that just flood
through our city every spring and fall, and every spring
and fall that, um,
that flood is like 5% less as measured
by the, by Cornell.
Now, that is a huge, huge number of birds that are meeting,
meeting their death, um, on their migratory path.
And a lot of them are, are meeting it right here.
You know, I've heard a couple times about the thousand birds
that were killed at McCormick Place,
but there's more than a thousand, a thousand birds
that were killed on that same day by the,
by the buildings in our city.
So we, we really have to stop this.
And I think, um, so we've been going
to the planning meetings.
Uh oh, okay.
Well, anyway, only 41% of the buildings since,
since the regulation has passed, have, um,
have taken the bird friendly.
So I think we have to, you know,
we have to make it mandatory.
Thank you, Judy. Um, Lois Kimmelman,
Followed by Gio Vargas, uh, followed by just Jennifer.
Hi, good morning. I'm Lois Kimmelman.
I'm a Chicago resident of the First Ward,
and I'm a long-term birder in the Chicago area.
Um, along with these great folks, I'm also very concerned,
uh, that bird populations are dropping nationwide, uh,
not just in Chicago,
and that birds are dying needlessly in Chicago due
to collisions with buildings.
Um, Chicago, in my opinion anyway,
should join other cities like New York,
San Francisco, and others.
Um, some more local, I believe, Evanston
in leading the way and passing a bird friendly ordinance
once and for all in Chicago.
Um, bird safe glass, for example.
And other measures that have already been proven to, um,
avoid or stem bird collisions.
Uh, they work, they work well,
and also they add really a negligible cost
to overall building construction.
And, um, uh, architects know about this.
It's just a question of encoding the requirements so
that this is actually done, I think it was mentioned,
it's costs a lot less to build these, literally build these,
um, bird safe measures into a new building rather than
adding them on afterwards.
So therefore, I urge you very strongly
to support the Chicago bird friendly design
audience or ordinance.
Thank you very much.
Thank you so much. Lois.
Sergio Vargas, uh, followed by Jennifer, followed by,
uh, Chris Hansen.
Hello, everyone. My name is Sergio Vargas,
and I work for the Illinois Environmental Council, comprised
of over 130 plus environmental organizations across the
state, uh, especially within, uh, the Chicagoland region.
And we're incredibly proud
and supportive
of bird friendly building ordinances in design,
especially since, uh,
Chicago is a major migratory pathway for so many birds.
Um, you know, an incredible history
and legacy of of birds, um,
and bird watching, especially within this larger
community within the city of Chicago.
Um, elders who can communicate
and, uh, express the extreme biodiversity loss
that they've seen across several decades, uh, is staggering.
And this is an opportunity to address that
and ensure that we continue to protect birds
and critically endangered species, uh, moving forward
and ensure that, uh, ongoing generations can appreciate
and build a stronger relationship with nature, um,
and continue to protect, uh,
natural areas across the region.
Thank you. Thank you.
All right, Jennifer. Alright. And then Chris Hansen,
Thank you very much for, um, to the city council
for having us here.
And to thank you to all the volunteers
and all the supporters here.
My name is Jennifer Bell
and I'm a long time, uh, city Chicago resident.
Um, I currently live in River West,
which is in the 27th Ward.
Um, I earned my degrees from University of Chicago
and University of Illinois at Chicago,
and I teach at a community college in the northwest suburbs.
For the past three years, I've been a, a volunteer monitor
for Chicago Bird Collision monitors,
helping rescue injured birds
and salvaging the deceased birds, uh,
window collision birds,
while documenting the heartbreaking toll
that glass buildings take on our migratory bird species.
I'm here to express my strong support
for bird friendly Chicago initiative
and the proposed ordinance requiring bird safe building
design and new construction.
I've seen firsthand morning
after morning at 6:00 AM the tragic results
of birds colliding with glass.
I recover their bodies from the sidewalks.
I try to save the ones still alive
and transport injured birds out to rehab.
I do this, I do this for hours and hours every week.
I meet concerned passersby
and local residents
who ask me the same question over and over.
Why doesn't Chicago have a law to pre prevent this?
We are a city on the Mississippi Flyway one
of the most important bird migration
routes in North America.
With Lake Michigan to the East Chicago River running
through our neighborhoods.
We are perfectly positioned
to be a leader in environmental protection.
Instead, right now, we are lagging behind, lagging
behind cities like New York, San Francisco, Toronto,
even our own suburbs like Evanston
and Skokie, they've already adopted smart,
economically feasible bird safe building requirements.
Why haven't we done this yet?
In Chicago, more than a billion birds are killed each year
from us in the US from window collisions.
These deaths are largely preventable.
Um, there are responsible proven long over,
long overdue steps, uh, towards sustainability
that we can do by,
by implementing these bird friendly design.
I live within walking distance to the, uh,
of the plan casino development along the river
and the massive wave of high, high,
high rises going up in Fulton Market.
These new buildings are being designed
with shimmering glass curtain walls, beautiful
for developers and people, but deadly for birds.
If we don't act now,
these structures will become long-term death traps
for countless migratory bird species.
Retrofitting later is far more expensive and difficult.
Let's get it right from the start.
This ordinance is about doing the right thing, not just
for birds, but for the health
and legacy for all of our city one.
Um, Chicago has an opportunity right now, right now to show
that we value more than profits and development.
We can be a city that leads with compassion,
foresight, and science.
Please support the bird friendly design ordinance.
Thank you Jennifer. And our last speaker
today is Chris Hansen.
Hi, I am Chris Hansen.
I am a member of the Chicago Ornithological Society.
Uh, and I just got handed some wonderful statistics here.
You'll want to know Montrose Point is the number one most
birded location in the United States,
not just Illinois in the United States.
And it's ranks 27th for bird diversity in the United States.
A hundred million birds passed through Chicago
during spring migration in the fall migration.
It's 150 million birds. Why is it so many more?
They're babies. They were born hatched in Canada
or Northern Boreal Forest
and are flying through our city for the first time.
And as people have mentioned, we are a death trap.
We are the worst in the United States.
And it pains me 'cause I love this city.
We are the best at so many things.
I want us to be best at this too.
Cook County is the most Birded County in the United States.
And what does that mean?
It means that well, total birders have increased from 2016
to 2022, uh, by 113%.
Economic impact has increased 175%
to $170.5 billion.
Those people come here for the Urban Birding Festival
and for the Indiana Dunes Birding Festival.
And they stay in hotels and buy food and up
and support all these kinds of things.
There's a significant birding impact to all the people
who are coming here to Chicago land to Bird.
Uh, and when I'm at these festivals, again,
as people have mentioned, it hurts me
when people are asking about the kill event at,
at McCormick Place about why we haven't done something.
Because we can, and we know how,
and as people have said, we have the data point from
McCormick Place, just a 97% drop
in bird strikes.
How much more clear does it need to get?
And all they had to do was skin their windows.
We can do this inexpensively for new buildings.
And the importance of that is,
and I have to quickly say,
hats off to the Department of Planning.
They have worked really well with us on this.
It is one of their measures.
But even their own data, which might be a little, uh,
enthusiastic, is still only 50%
of the projects incorporate these measures.
And that means half the buildings are going up without
bird safety measures.
And we know how long a building lasts in Chicago, decades
and decades, if not hundreds of years.
And those birds will continue dying against those buildings.
I don't feel like we can wait another year.
You've heard about how the number
of birds are dropping steadily.
The very least we can do is pass an ordinance
to make sure every new building
that goes up has bird safe measures built into it.
And we can do it this year.
And that's what I'm asking you to do. Thank you.
Thank you, Chris.
Okay. All right.
Um, there being no more speakers, um,
the public comment period has concluded.
So thank you to all of our speakers today.
I would like to note that the committee received 86
written public comments.
Um, and those have been sent out
to committee members via email.
Um, our first order of business is the Rule 45 report from
June, which was sent out to the committee.
Can I have a motion to approve our Rule 45 report?
All right, alderman, now howorth.
So moves all those in favor say aye. All the aye.
All those opposed And the opinion
of the chair, the ayes have it.
The item before the committee today is R 2024 dash
0 0 1 0 8 6 1, calling
for hearings on bird friendly building
design in the city of Chicago.
Um, may I have a motion to recommend approval of this item?
Alder crews. So move all those in favor, say aye.
Are you guys are gonna let Alder Lawson run the
entire committee today?
All those opposed say nay. All right.
In the opinion of the chairs, the ayes have it.
I'll report this vote as a recommendation
to pass at the next city Council meeting.
Uh, I'd like to recognize Alder Conway for purposes
of quorum Alder Conway, would you like to be added to that,
uh, that roll call too?
Uh, for, uh, the, uh, passing the resolution? Yes.
All right. All right. We're, we're good? All right.
And then, um, uh, I want to thank, um, alders Cruz
and, um, Hopkins for co-sponsoring, um, this measure with,
um, our office and working with our advocates on this.
So in October of 2023, um,
Chicago made national headlines, um,
when a thousand migrating Songbirds died in one night
after colliding with the McCormick Place, mistaking it
for an unobstructed pass through.
Since then, McCormick Place has invested over a million
dollars in updates to its building
to prevent another catastrophic event.
While we applaud McCormick Place for its efforts,
the fact remains that Chicago's rivers
and shorelines serve as a critical flyway for millions
of migratory birds that pass through our city twice a year.
You guys basically wrote this for me, by the way.
I'm just saying Thank you for our public commenters.
Um, Chicago's building sock represents a risk
to migratory birds who do not recognize our buildings
as solid barriers, and believe them
to be open corridors due due to the Glass's reflection.
There are simple fixes
to making our buildings more bird friendly, such
as using patterns on glass, using a UV coating
or adding window treatment.
So birds recognize our buildings as barriers.
According to a 2022 report by the Ornith, uh,
ornithology Center at Muhlenberg College, the cost
to install those measures is nominal only accounting
for 0.38% of the total overall cost of new construction.
Chicago based, uh, glass supplier, uh, Torsten
and Glass was quoted in the Chicago Sun Times stating
that bird safe glass cost only five
to 10% more than traditional glass.
Other cities such as New York City, San Francisco, Toronto,
and Evanston have already passed bird friendly ordinances
that mandate bird safe materials
and design strategies
for new construction and major renovations.
In 2024, the Department of Planning
and Development updated its Sustainable Development
policy, or SDP.
The SDP is a tool used for buildings receiving city funding,
or seeking zoning relief,
requiring sustainable building design elements.
In the final project, these design elements may lower gas
emissions, improved public health, manage storm stormwater,
promote more efficient transportation, use divert waste,
promote workforce development and protect wildlife.
In 2020, city Council passed an ordinance prioritizing bird
collision deterrent strategies by applying weighted points
to buildings that implement bird friendly design elements
with 20 points assigned for basic protections
and 30 points for enhanced protections.
Today we will hear from representatives from the Department
of Planning Development regarding data on
what strategies developers are selecting.
Since that STP um, update,
we'll also hear from subject matter experts from the
American Bird Conservancy, skyline Glass, um, boma,
Chicago Bird Collision monitors, studio gang Architects,
and Loyola University to discuss best practices,
additional cost, economic impacts,
ecological impacts, and more.
So joining us today, um, in the box,
we have Bradley Robach with the Department
of Planning and Development.
We have Dr. Brian Linz with the American Bird Conservancy.
We have Mark Toth and Charlie Rizzo with Skyline Glass.
Amy Masters with Boma, Annette Prince
with the Chicago Bird Collision Monitors, uh, Jeannie Gang
with Studio Gang, and Jennifer Clark and Dr.
Ruben Keller with Loyola University.
So with that, I'm gonna turn it over to our panelists
to introduce themselves
and share infor additional information
with their presentations today.
And thank you for all for joining us.
Um, so, uh, Brad, we're gonna start with you.
Great. Good morning, uh,
chairwoman Hadden and members of the committee.
Uh, thank you very much for inviting our department
to come here today and talk about this important issue.
Um, for the record, my name is Bradley Beck.
I'm the Director of Planning, research
and Development with the Department of Planning
and, uh, development.
Uh, I'm here today to provide a brief overview
of the DPD 2024 Sustainable Development Policy,
um, a summary of updated bird protection strategies within
the policy, and to provide some preliminary results on
of which projects are electing to use the bird protection,
uh, strategies since it's been available.
Um, you know, back in July of last year, DPD
provided some documentation to the committee,
which includes a PowerPoint presentation
that summarizes some of, of what I'm gonna talk about today,
uh, which also includes a list of strategies
and third party certification systems within the policy.
Uh, these documents
and more information are also available on the Sustainable
Development Policy website.
Uh, so the Sustainable Development Policy is a departmental
policy administered by DPD.
It's a point-based system that encourages innovation
and sustainable design and development.
The SDP helps Chicago achieve its wide ranging climate
and resiliency goals through a menu of options, uh,
that reflect best practices.
The policy went into full effect on January 1st, 2025.
The policy typically applies to about 50
or 75 projects, uh, per year.
This includes projects that receive certain types
of zoning approvals or financial assistance from DPD
or, uh, department of Housing.
The policy applies to plan developments,
projects receiving over a million dollars in city funding
through DPD programs, uh,
and with a redevelopment agreement projects subject
to the air quality ordinance,
renovation projects being provided.
Class L tax incentives,
affordable multifamily housing projects
with more than five units receiving financial assistance
from the Department of Housing.
And most recently, it was noted in the green
social housing ordinance.
So projects that go through
that program also need to comply.
The policy establishes point thresholds based on project
scale and the proposed scope of work projects earn points
by selecting strategies
or building certification, uh, programs from a menu
of options, new construction or substantial renovations, uh,
or substantial additions, I'm sorry, greater than 50%
of the existing building area obtain 100 points
substantial renovations that involve modifications
to building systems and exterior elements
or smaller additions.
Obtain 50 points and minor renovations
or projects that don't contain.
Uh, principal buildings need to obtain 25 points.
Uh, developers can choose from a list of strategies
or third party building certifications
to achieve the necessary point total for compliance.
Uh, there are two pathways for this, uh, for projects
to comply with the policy.
The first involves selecting from the menu of strategies
to make up the necessary points.
The second involves using third party certification systems
like Lead or Green Globes
or Enterprise Green communities to obtain a majority
of the needed points, and then choose additional
strategies to make up the balance.
Some strategies may not be available
to projects using third party certifications,
and that's to, in order
to avoid overlapping certification standards
and SDP strategies.
Uh, the SDP update, um, includes multiple strategy options,
again, that helped the city meet its broader
sustainability and climate goals.
I want to talk a little bit about specific bird protection
strategies that were added, uh, compared to the 2017 policy,
which was the last update.
Uh, the 2024 update, uh,
quadrupled the basic bird protection points,
moving them from five to 20.
Uh, and it tripled the enhanced bird protection points
moving that from 10 to 30.
Uh, and that was as directed by the 2020 ordinance
that was noted in the resolution as
and by Chair Woodman Hadden.
Uh, earlier on.
Uh, the updated policy also includes new bird protection
guidance that identifies high risk conditions, options
for bird friendly material selections
and best practices involving lighting, ventilation,
and other features of development.
So, with that said, I I wanna talk briefly about some
of the preliminary impacts, uh, of the updated policy.
I'm gonna specifically focus on, uh,
how many projects have included bird protection as part
of their compliance pathway.
Um, just to start off, the policy has been working
more projects than ever are electing
to include the building, uh, in the building
and design elements, things that reduce collisions.
This includes projects not only downtown along the river,
but also in our neighborhoods.
Approximately half of the projects that we've looked at, um,
have selected bird protection strategies.
This is up from about a 10% usage rate
through the old policy, the 2017 version.
Uh, additionally, some projects are voluntarily
incorporating bird protection measures,
but they're not using the SDP strategies for compliance.
Um, this includes different types
of projects which range from industrial, uh,
commercial mixed use, residential, uh, as well
as institutional redevelopments that we see.
Uh, developers are using a variety of materials
and approaches to help reduce collisions.
These include some things that were already noted, um,
you know, fritted glass or glasses glass with, uh,
visual cues, potentially adding films
or application to windows using metal panels
or screening to kind of shield glass, um,
turning off lighting during migratory periods,
and then also, uh, directing lighting downwards
to reduce light pollution.
Um, so that kind of summarizes the preliminary impact.
I wanted just briefly to talk about a couple of concerns
that have been conveyed to DPD.
Some of them will come up multiple times today.
Uh, costs related to bird friendly glazing remain a concern
among development teams that we've spoken with.
These costs vary widely by building type amount
of glazing materials used and overall building design.
DPD has not conducted a study
that provides conclusive data on these costs,
but we have heard anecdotally, uh,
we've received comments from developers
and designers indicating
that sometimes adding bird friendly treatments can as much
as double the unit cost of glass.
No, this can be significant depending on the project type.
Uh, concerns about varying availability of materials
and associated impacts on construction timelines.
Were also noted in these reports
or in these, uh, communications,
these factors should be considered in any potential
regulation in order
to minimize development costs and schedules.
Uh, in conclusion, I just wanna wrap up.
Uh, I wanted to add that through discussions like this
and through collaboration between developers, businesses,
advocates, elected officials, property managers,
and Chicago residents,
more buildings than ever are including elements
to help reduce conditions, DPD looks forward to continuing
that collaboration in the future. Thank you very much.
Thank you so much, Brad. All right.
Um, we have next up Dr. Brian Linz.
Thank you. Uh, Dr. Clicker. I'm, yeah, you can hear me.
I'm Brian Lens. I am the Glass Collision Program
Director from American Bird Conservancy,
and I'm realizing I might need glasses
as I look at my PowerPoint over there.
Um, the a BC collisions team has five members on it.
Um, four and a half of us do collisions full time.
Uh, there are not a whole lot of organizations
that have this many people working on collisions, advocacy,
um, as their their jobs.
So we can get quite a bit of stuff done. Mm-hmm.
Um, we work in several different areas.
One is to change the conversation.
Uh, and by that I mean,
we don't want bird friendly
building designed to be an add-on.
We want it to be something
that everybody thinks is important to do every time.
And over the past 10 years, we've started
to see a real shift, um,
moving in the direction we'd like to see.
Uh, we have tunnel testing, so we rate glass.
You may hear people mention a threat factor, um, as a,
a metric architects can use to figure out what glass they,
they can use to meet these requirements.
Um, that comes from us.
We do a lot of research, um, training, including architects
through American Institute of Architects.
Um, and we do quite a bit of, of legislation work,
which I'm gonna talk about more in a minute.
Um, you've heard a bit about how important birds are.
Uh, they are critical to a healthy ecosystem
and functioning environment.
Um, they also provide a lot of sanitation,
which is important in a city like Chicago.
Uh, they are super important to people.
You've got a bunch of advocates.
Almost everybody here stood up when Judy asked
that question, which I loved.
Um, but Fish
and Wildlife estimates that there are over 2 million people
who are active bird watchers in Illinois.
And so that doesn't mean they like the environment
or they kind of enjoy birds.
These are the people who actually go out and watch birds.
This is a lot of people right here in, in your city.
Um, I put the economic impact numbers from birdwatching here
so that it's saved for my children's, children's children
in the recording of this.
Um, the big one is that it's a $280 billion a year
industry output in the United States every single year.
And when you get a single rare bird that shows up,
birders travel, and they spend money when they travel, um,
up to a million dollars for a single bird sighting if it
stays in one spot long enough.
Uh, Milwaukee had a rare one,
and I went and saw it for 20 minutes.
And there were people from Chicago, Indiana,
and one guy flew in from Arizona.
Um, so this is, this is real.
And if they die on glass, you're cutting
that impact off the second they hit the building.
Um, Chicago is great for birds.
It has a lot of green space.
Uh, you guys have really hit it out
of the park on that front.
Um, but it's
among the most dangerous cities when you look at
how many birds fly through Chicago,
how many buildings you've got with how much glass they have,
and the amount of light pollution which can attract birds.
Uh, in further, um,
the good news is that change is happening.
These are the numbers from McCormick Place.
Um, so you can see the huge drop in collisions
after the treatments were installed.
Thank you to Feather friendly for the graphic.
Um, since that project, feather Friendly has, um,
11 other projects in Chicago that are in progress
or finished, and another 12 at least,
that they're in conversations on.
So again, people here are paying attention,
and this is the more expensive way to do this, a retrofit,
um, and people are, are starting to show up to spend money.
Uh, when you talk about what is the process for an ordinance
and what's important, we really have two targets.
New construction in the existing buildings.
If you gave me every new building
for now from today forward,
and I didn't get any of the existing
ones, we just hit pause.
And we kill a billion birds a year
until we've replaced every building.
So making sure we include the glass
that's existing when it gets replaced is important.
Um, there are two pathways to make a building better,
working on the glass and the design
and working on the lighting.
I believe most of what we're focusing in on
for this meeting is the, the glass.
Uh, I would encourage there to be follow up meetings
to get into the lighting details,
which live in a different part of the code.
Um, the good news is Chicago doesn't have to be first.
Uh, this is a list of communities in North America
that have bird friendly building
ordinances that are mandatory.
There are more that are voluntary,
but we don't have those up here.
And I believe I have a couple more to add to this list.
Um, for the goals that we've got.
When you're designing an ordinance, we want it
to be clear and achievable.
If it's convoluted, hard to understand, needs a bunch
of back and forth explanation, uh,
it kind of misses the mark.
Uh, we want it to apply to as many buildings as possible.
Uh, birds hit buildings of all sizes and shapes.
And so if you just pick the five big ones,
you're not gonna fix this problem.
You need to do it at a big scale.
Um, we also want the bird friendly glass where it matters,
and we don't worry so much about it where it doesn't matter.
So if you're putting up a new 80 story building,
I don't care so much about the top.
I care about the bottom. And working up to the part
where we know, um, causes the most collisions.
Uh, again, I mentioned it should include replacement glass
so we can get at the existing buildings.
And then it's important to avoid unintended consequences,
either writing a statement that makes this, uh, burdensome
for a developer, or writing a
statement that makes a loophole.
So you end up having the supply to four buildings.
Um, you want to get what you want out of it.
Um, I would recommend the starting point be the American
Bird Conservancy Model Ordinance.
Uh, there's a lot in it,
but the simple way we refer to it is a hundred, a hundred,
a hundred, a hundred percent
of the glass on a hundred percent
of the buildings to a hundred feet high.
Um, you can tweak from there.
Uh, one of the really good things about the model ordinance
is the definition section at the start.
So it gets you halfway out of the gate, um,
by having the best definitions,
the most comprehensive definitions of bird friendly glass,
and the kinds of features you
really need to pay attention to.
Um, we have a bunch of ordinance tools on our website.
We're gonna have a new website soon, I hope.
Um, so what it looks like might change
when you, you get there.
Um, there is also a good review of the existing legislation,
so you can go and see what's on that list that I posted,
and just click and directly read the text of all of them.
We've also given brief commentary on what we think of each.
Um, so you can, uh, kind of start with the, the ones
that we think are the most effective.
And we've, we've ranked them too.
So with that, I'd like to just say thank you
to the city of Chicago.
Thank you to all you beautiful bird people.
None of this would be happening without you guys picking up
birds is really hard, often very, very depressing.
Uh, so like, serious kudos to you.
None of this would be possible without all your effort.
Um, and I just say A, B, C is in anything you want from us.
Any conversation we can have, any guidance we can provide,
uh, let me know. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you so much, Brian.
Um, next we've got, uh, mark, and Charlie.
Hi, my name's Charlie Rizzo.
I'm the chairman and founder of Skyline Design.
And, uh, I am gonna speak a little bit about the history
of Skyline, because I think it's important
we're a Chicago based company.
And then I'm gonna turn it over
to Mark who's gonna talk a little bit about cost,
because that seems to be a big issue here,
and it certainly is one that's sort
of inflated in my opinion.
So we're gonna try and put some clarity
to it and make it simple.
Uh, so Skyline Design is located in Humboldt Park.
Uh, we're on the west side of the city.
We employ about a hundred plus people from the community,
uh, and we like to keep those people busy and working.
And so one of the products that we offer, uh,
is called Bird Safe Glass, which is a fitting moniker
for, uh, this discussion.
So I heard a lot of people talking about, uh,
costs, so we're gonna try and address costs.
But, uh, again, just a little bit of background.
Skyline, uh, makes glass for buildings all over the country.
We do a lot of work in healthcare.
We do a lot of work in, uh, commercial,
which would be office buildings,
and then we do a lot of work in public space,
like airports, et cetera.
And so one of the big things that's been, uh,
on the docket has been Bird Safe.
We started designing Bird Safe Glass about 10 years ago.
Uh, one of the, kind of the issues
with the designing glass is that, uh,
there were limitations.
And so at Skyline, there are no limitations.
So we can do any kind of pattern to satisfy any architects.
So in our meetings with, uh,
the architectural community, uh, they brought us into a lot
of meetings with developers,
and I did hear some comments about developers
and, uh, their sort
of misinterpretation of costs.
So, whereas I think Brian mentioned something about,
uh, doubling the cost of glass,
we wanna put a real number to that.
And when you look at a glass budget, it's probably about,
uh, less than 1% add cost to put Bird safe glass in place,
uh, at the beginning of an installation,
the McCormick Place installation is a fantastic,
uh, example of it.
However, uh, it's going to be costly in five years
because they'll probably have to replace it
and put new, uh, uh, film up on top of,
or take the old film off and put new film up.
Whereas we offer a process, it's one time,
it's done in the beginning of the process.
Uh, and again, it's, uh, a one-time cost
and it's very cost effective.
So, uh, Mark's gonna talk for a few minutes about, uh, some
of those projects that we've had experiences with.
So thank you. And,
And I'm, uh, Charlie, I'm sending Dari over to grab,
I know you brought a sample with you.
I did. Do you mind? Um,
and so committee members,
the re's gonna bring over the sample of what some
of the bird friendly glasses like,
Yeah. So this is, uh,
just a
Thank you, Vanna. Thank you.
A very simple example of, uh, the way
that we process glass.
So it's, we put it on the number one surface,
and that is the surface that birds see
and recognize, uh, immediately, as opposed to being on
this glass unit's made up of two pieces of glass
and with a, uh, with a, uh, uh, liquid,
uh, kind of sealant around it
to keep, uh, any of the air out.
And it's a thermal factor.
And you can do this right in the factory.
You can work right on that glass.
Uh, and so the, uh, again, the idea
of it being expensive is really a misconception.
So I think that shows like, eh, it looks pretty simple.
Yeah. So thank you.
Yeah. So, hi everyone.
Uh, my name is Mark Toth, uh, with Skyline.
Thank you for having us here.
So one of the things that I wanna talk about our cost,
and we're, I think hearing it repeatedly here
in this hearing, um, the, the reality is adding
bird safe markings
to glass in general adds about anywhere from three
to 10% depending on the process, the technique, the type
of glazing, things like that.
Um, and that's the actual cost of the glass itself.
So it's similar to what's being passed around there.
Um, a good example for a project
that we're working on right now, we're doing a project
up in Evanston, which does have a bird safe ordinance, uh,
for Northwestern, uh, the Jacobs Center renovation.
Um, the, the glazing budget for
that project is about $6 million
Skyline's portion to put the patterning,
the bird markings on the glass is about $75,000.
So a very small portion, uh, that equates to about 1.2,
1.3% of the total glazing budget.
So when you get into the overall cost of the project itself,
amortized it, it drops it down quite a bit.
So I think I mentioned, I think I heard 0.3, 0.4%
of the total budget.
And that's, that's a pretty safe number to go by.
Um, another example
is right across the street here,
the new Google headquarters, um,
you have bird safe glass going up,
I believe about 60 feet on that project.
Uh, the total cost of the renovation of the building,
not including the purchase cost of the, the,
the real estate is about 250 to $280 million.
Of that 500,000 give
or take, is dedicated to adding Bird safe.
So that equates to about 0.17%
of the overall budget.
So again, the cost is quite low, uh,
and that's what we're seeing across the board from a,
from a, a cost standpoint.
Um, the other thing that we're hearing quite a bit,
and I probably get two
or three calls a week, are tariffs.
And how are tariffs affecting the cost in terms of
what we're seeing from a construction standpoint.
Uh, the good news is there are several manufacturers
of bird safe glass in the United States.
Um, can't include Canada unfortunately.
Um, but, uh, you know, there are choices.
And Skyline being one of 'em, Chicago Humble Park, um,
you know, it really doesn't affect the cost
from a tariff standpoint.
So, you know, I, I think there's, you know, the, the,
the issue of cost is really a,
a pretty small issue in the whole scheme of things.
And I think when you factor in,
and I've heard it a number of times from everybody up here,
is, you know, Chicago architecturally is one
of the premier cities globally,
and people come in from all over the world
to visit us for our architecture.
And I'm learning how many people come to Chicago from a,
from a birding standpoint.
So, you know, we're, we're tops in that,
but unfortunately we're also tops
and bird kills, you know, during the migratory season.
So I just think there's something
that we can do and we could do it better.
And, you know, I think
that's why we're all here today. So thank you.
Thank you Charlie. And Mark.
Um, next up, Amy Masters, sorry
to throw you off in the seating order there.
Can I say one more thing? Absolutely.
Um, I'd like to, uh,
invite all the alderman to Skyline.
We're in Humboldt Park. We've had, uh,
alderman Fuentes there, we've had Mayor Johnson there.
And we'd like to, uh, invite all of you to come by
and see how this process is done
so you have a real clear sense of what you'd be voting for.
So you're all welcome and we'd love
to have you. Thank you. Oh,
Thank you for that invite. We'll
organize a field trip, guys, what do you think?
It's the order they put the slide. All right. Sounds good.
All right. And is that clicker working for you?
All right, Amy.
It is. It is. Thank you. Are you good?
Good morning, chairwoman
Hadden and members of the committee.
My name is Amy Masters and I'm the Director of Government
and External Affairs for BOMA Chicago.
Thank you for the opportunity
to provide our perspective today on this important issue
of bird friendly building design.
Boma Chicago represents about 240 large office buildings in
the city, most of which are located downtown, uh,
Chicago's office industry proudly.
Um, leads, I'm going in opposite order, sorry.
We proudly lead the nation in green building stock,
which is a combination of energy star designations
and lead designations in terms of square footage,
and also are one of the top three cities nationwide when it
comes to office building lead designations.
Boma Chicago also,
or our office sector, also provides over 64,000 jobs, most
of which are union and contributes
$5.9 billion to the state's economy.
Uh, BOMA Chicago also represents the owners
and managers of existing buildings, not developers.
Today we bring our extensive experience in the commercial
office market to offer several key considerations
as you evaluate bird friendly building design policies
for existing buildings.
First, excuse me, I'd like to underscore the realities
of today's commercial office industry.
Due to post pandemic work trends,
downtown vacancy has reached its highest level
yet at nearly 29% right here in the Central Loop.
As a result, over the last several years,
we've seen office buildings sell for pennies on the dollar
as just as just one example.
Three 11 South Wacker, a building that sold
for $302 million in 2014, sold
for just four $45 million.
That's an 85% discount,
and that is, again, one of many
in Chicago construction cranes have long been a powerful
symbol of progress signaling, not just new investment,
but bringing hundreds, even thousands
of well-paying union jobs to the city.
This absence of construction cranes in our skyline is a
clear signal that Chicago is missing out.
As developers predict
that no new office building development is expected
until at least around 2032.
We can expect years of stalled investment, job losses,
and growing tax pressure on homeowners.
Given the pause in downtown development from new
developments to renovations in existing buildings,
it's important to consider
how new costly mandates could affect future investment.
Even a five to 10% increase in window costs adds up quickly
for large buildings with thousands of windows
where specialized glass
or film can result in millions of dollars in added expenses.
This is also just done at a, a really horrible time
for when buildings are struggling
to even just pay their, their basic bills.
And I'd also like to share some additional feedback about
flight levels of birds
and cost-effective design alternatives.
Um, I'll echo some of the comments earlier about
bird flight levels and, and lower levels.
Uh, lower story levels.
Studies have shown that birds tend to fly low to the ground,
making residences and low rises a greater risk.
Two studies cited here estimate that less than 1%
of birds collide with high rises,
and the majority of collisions occur at low rises.
Those low rises, uh, are considered four to 11 stories,
and also, uh, the rest are at residences.
And those are considered between one and three stories.
Given those lower flight levels of birds,
and to help protect as many birds as possible,
we recommend the inclusion
of low rises in residences in any policy discussions.
And when looking at building design,
there's some lower cost options to minimize bird collisions
that include landscaping and lighting.
Thoughtful landscaping from both the inside
and the outside of windows can help reduce bird collisions.
And another alternative is
to minimize upward facing lighting was, I know
that was already mentioned, and also lighting in the
evenings to help birds navigate more naturally
and avoid disorientation
and hazards associated with artificial light.
In fact, BOMA Chicago partnered
with the Chicago Bird Alliance
to launch the Lights Out program in 2001,
and we continue to promote that program today,
and we work with the Chicago Bird Collision
monitors as well.
During spring and fall migration seasons,
our buildings are encouraged to minimize their lighting
in lobbies and atriums,
and also to reduce their exterior lighting
after 11:00 PM through daylight.
Tenants are also reminded to turn down their lights
and motion detectors are encouraged to minimize light.
And of course, all of these, these things are, are helpful
for energy efficiency as well.
And lastly,
city Council is separately considering considering a
stricter window signage ordinance in an effort
to enhance public safety in its current form,
that ordinance would restrict tinting
and obstruction of sight into the business
for all stakeholders involved.
Just wanted to note this
because it's important to ensure that any etching or tinting
or opacity of windows considered
through bird friendly building design is also aligned
with any window signage requirements or other other codes.
And as this conversation continues,
we wanna emphasize our shared commitment
to protecting migratory birds as they pass through Chicago.
We respectfully urge the committee to consider a range
of perspectives, including market realities,
cost-effective alternatives, feasibility,
and potential conflicts with existing codes.
And we also encourage the inclusion of low-rise buildings
and residences in any policy discussions.
Thank you again for the opportunity
to share the commercial office community's perspective,
and I'm happy to answer any questions
or serve as a resource moving forward. Thanks.
Great. Thank you so much, Amy.
Um, before we move to our next speaker,
just wanna give a little acknowledgement for,
for those in the gallery, you're not all under arrest.
Um, you may have had some concerns, um,
but I wanna, uh, welcome.
We have some guests visiting us here at City Hall today from
the Asian American Law Enforcement Association
and the National Asian Peace Officers Association.
So, um, thank you all for your service.
Um, thank you for being here.
Um, uh, as a show of hands, how many of you like birds?
Show of hands. Hands
Up. Hands up, right. Bird
friends up?
Okay. Um, just so you know,
our committee discussion today is, um, a resolution
that we are looking at the city's current work on
supporting, um, bird friendly design in development.
And we're hearing from a panel of experts, uh, about
what some of those options are
and, um, things that we should be considering
as we weigh any future policies.
So, um, you're welcome to sit as well if you wanna hang out.
Alright. All right.
Well, thank you for visiting, uh, city hall today.
All right, next up, um, is we'll go to in
The lineup or did Jeanie get moved to a different place
because she was on the list as being
She's after Annette. We've
moved. She's after. You just gonna say
Get skipped. Yay. That's
her. Yes. Good. Yep.
Sorry we didn't, we didn't see
you in necessarily in the same order.
So, Annette, you are up next. I'm, I'm
Next.
Okay. Just pushing the center button to advance right there.
Got it. Alright. Okay.
Um, I, I'll be saying some things other peoples have have
said, but I'm gonna say it again
and make sure everyone was paying attention.
Uh, my name's Annette Prince
and I'm the director of Chicago Bird Collision Monitors a
conservation project for the last 20 years, uh,
that has been documenting the scope
of the bird collision problem in Chicago, uh,
and advocating for reduced bird injury
and death through safer lighting
and building design practices.
I wanna make sure to, to thank Alder person, Hadden
and her team for organizing this hearing
and allowing this really important testimony
to be brought before the city council.
And I wanna thank the members of this panel who were willing
to lend their expertise and time to support our cause.
Uh, 10 years ago, we formed a coalition
of Chicagoland Bird organizations
to advance changes in Chicago's building requirements
that would mandate as a first step
that at least new construction
or major renovations in the city would be required
to use effective bird friendly designs, lighting,
landscaping and materials.
Am I gonna get picked by here?
We did not get a comprehensive ordinance at that time
that would've established
and enforced specific levels of bird protection.
We instead worked with the Department of Planning
and Development to incorporate bird friendly standards into
the revised sustainable development policy.
We appreciate the work that was done with DPD
and the steps that were taken to include bird safe
considerations in the sustainable development policy.
However, these measures remain voluntary and
although extra points are given, they do not assure
as they should, that all projects are bird safe.
And this has subsequently allowed dangerous new
buildings to be approved.
In addition, as was mentioned, uh, only 50
or more projects a year fall under these recommendations.
And so they do not, uh,
if they're not a DPD reviewed project,
this doesn't address the construction
that is carried on throughout the city.
Every new building that is constructed
with inadequate bird protections is going to kill
and injure birds for the decades that
that building stands in our city.
So, while it is good to have 10, 20,
or 50% of new construction projects using bird safety
design, as it was said before, that leaves 90, 80,
or 50% of the remaining buildings as potential bird killers.
Would we say that forest safety measures are good enough
for 50% of the buildings in the city,
and that that's a good start?
Would we fix half the potholes in the roads
and let the others cause accidents, injuries, and damage?
The point is to reduce hazards
to the greatest extent possible.
We're not asking for mere cosmetic changes.
We are asking for mandated measures that are going
to determine whether something lives or dies.
Here are the documented numbers of birds that were killed
or injured over the last 10 years
in just a couple square miles
of the downtown area that we monitor.
Anywhere from 5,000 to 9,000 debtor injured birds are
collected, and these are just the birds
that are limited time and volunteers can recover.
It is estimated
that there are maybe 10 times more collisions, uh,
victims than you actually find since there are thousands
of birds that are, can't be reached on rooftops, balconies
that are grabbed by predators or swept away.
So when we say 5,000 birds in a year,
that could actually really equate to 50,000 birds in a year
of, of dead and injured birds in just a couple square
miles of downtown.
If you multiply that by the more than 200 square miles
of Chicago, we can see that our city is killing birds.
In the hundreds of thousands, our teams can pick up
a hundred or a thousand birds in a single day.
This is a level of death and injury that's unacceptable.
These amazing, the, the amazing travels in lives
of these birds have been needlessly cut short.
Um, they deserve a better fate.
McCormick Place, as people have mentioned,
got the worldwide attention when one a thousand birds died
in there in one morning,
and we collected another 2000 birds throughout other areas
of downtown that same morning.
People look at that as a one-time event,
but it is an ongoing tragedy that we want to, people, people
to be aware of is, is happening on a, on a,
a yearly basis In Chicago, Chicago is ranked as the city
that poses the greatest threat to migratory birds.
Millions of them travel through our, our city, some
of them traveling hundreds of miles, some
of them traveling thousands of miles.
They're coming from their wintering grounds in South
America, central America, the southern United States,
and heading as far north as the united, as Northern
United States, and all the way up to the Arctic Circle.
All of them are falling a route that they used for thousands
of years before we put dangerous buildings in their path.
And all of them are falling victim to the, the
to striking, reflective
and, um, transparent glass we find over.
We find we have found over 200 different species of birds.
Some of them rare, some of them more common.
Um, and the real tragedy
to this story is that yes,
birds typically die during migration.
It's a, it's a, a rough thing for them to do.
Um, nature selects against the weak ones, the slow ones,
the ones that couldn't find their, couldn't find food
or couldn't avoid predators.
But our building glass kills the best birds,
the strongest ones, the ones
that made it here from South America in the spring
and almost made it to their nesting grounds
to raise offspring only
to be killed at one of our buildings.
These birds are completing a marathon greater than the
Chicago Marathon,
and it is as if we stood at the end
of next year's Chicago race and shot
and shot the runners as they crossed the finish line.
Uh, these are the healthiest, the strongest, um,
winners, and we are harming them
in the hundreds of thousands.
These birds are the best hope for their species survival.
And these numbers are already suffering severe declines from
habitat loss, climate change, and other human interference.
These birds face horrible, needless
and preventable death and injury in our city,
but we know that we can put protections in place.
McCormick Place, as has been discussed, added markers
to their glass that in no way impeded the light
and the view from their two football fields worth of glass.
And they have seen more than a 95%
reduction in bird strikes.
Innovative designs
and materials used by architects like Genie Gang
and others create beautiful, sustainable
and bird safe buildings.
Chicago has to be a responsible host to the millions
of birds that pass through our area,
and that constitute, um, that, that the constituents
and visitors to our city care about.
And that matters to the people who live in this city.
These birds are not just local birds,
but they are worldwide visitors that are critical
to the balance of nature to the global health
that we all rely on.
Whether you care about birdwatching or not, jobs, tourism
and tax revenue from birding activities
and the business of building bird friendly can generate
billions of dollars every year in this country.
I hope you have watched or will watch the link
to the documentary film Broken Flight,
which you were sent in it.
You will see the important picture
of the bird collision issue in Chicago, that people
around the country are viewing and around the world
and asking why more can't be done
to help the federally protected birds
that travel through this area.
Every year, Chicago is ranked
and documented as the location posing such great
risks to migratory birds.
We must implement reasonable, proven, achievable, effective,
and required mes me measures
to provide comprehensive protection
for these amazing critical and irreplaceable birds.
Will Chicago continue to be a place where birds come to die
or will we urgently establish
and require measures
that will give them the safer passages they deserve?
That's it. Thank you so much, Annette.
All right, Jeannie, you're up. Alright, thank you.
Um, my name's Jeannie Gang and I'm an architect.
Um, I lead Studio Gang,
which is an award-winning international architecture firm
that I founded right here in Chicago.
Um, I'm also an advocate
for the Mandatory Bird Safe Ordinance.
Uh, Chicago celebrates birds through its arts and culture.
Think about the Calder sculpture,
in case you didn't know it's a flamingo.
Um, think about the Chicago Public Library
with these amazing owls, uh, standing watch over,
over the city on its pediment.
And today, if you go around, you'll for sure find
the next generation of artists celebrating birds,
the Peregrine falcon on the left and on these city murals.
Um, the redheaded Woodpecker,
which I saw earlier, um, on the right.
Um, so my work has taken me around the world
and I, um, work all over the country as well.
But I first learned about the Chicago bird, uh,
the migratory Flyway over Mississippi Flyway when I was
working on a project in Calume, um, in 2003.
Um, and I was designing a nature center down here on the
south side and learned of through the research and,
and actually, uh, reached out to bird collision monitors at
that time and learned what some of the situations were
that was causing, uh, a lot of these collisions
with buildings, you know,
and I designed buildings for a living.
I don't want them killing birds, you know, being, um,
the second largest killer to birds after cats.
Um, since then, each
and every one of my buildings has tried to, we've tried
to address, uh, bird safety.
And this is even before, you know,
there were really great guidelines that we have now.
So we were trying out a lot of things at Aqua Tower.
We used picket railings, hand hand railings, metal railings
that you can see on the right, which are way less expensive.
Way, way, way less expensive.
There's five miles of handrail on this building, um,
and it's perfectly bird safe.
So there's a, a solution right there.
Um, this is City Hyde Park in Hyde Park,
and it's, um, a less, it's, it's not a super fancy building,
but it, it's uses, um, bird safe glass on the handrails.
So it has etched glass on the handrails.
So instead of picket rails, we have glass handrails.
Um, this is what it looks like.
I don't know if you can see the dots on the right,
on the glass,
but if you look at it up close
with the light coming directly in,
you can see on the handrail.
So that's a very dangerous situation when you have glass out
in the environment with no space behind it.
So it's just another example.
And on this building, you know, on the lower levels as well
as the upper levels, we did it.
It's not as, it was a very tight construction budget
yet the bird protection was achieved.
Um, and it can be done.
And we need a mandatory bird safe ordinance.
Um, not an optional voluntary point system.
Uh, we think that anything less than
that is just not gonna protect,
give the protection that we need.
Um, you know, San Francisco, New York,
Toronto has already been mentioned.
They put regulations in place years ago,
and we already knew about this problem back then.
And we need it here in Chicago to be a leader.
Um, all buildings have constraints and regulations.
We have tons of constraints and regulations.
That's when architecture and, you know, architects
and developers, um, can get creative
and they respond with, um, inventions
and new businesses are started,
and it, it, it spurs on the economy
to have something new like this, um, incorporated.
They start to have fun with it, like here.
Um, this was a place in, um, a building in uc,
Santa Cruz within a redwood forest.
So trees much higher than our trees here in Chicago.
So you need more protection, um, and mandatory protection.
And all of our glass in this building is bird safe.
Um, we had fun with it instead of a dot pattern.
You can see the zoom,
I don't know if you can see the zoom in on the right.
Those instead of dots, they're etchings
of all the little creatures that can be found in the forest,
but done in this way that is protective of the glass.
And actually, uh, with a shout out
to our Chicago company Skyline,
who actually did this, uh, etching.
So that was business for a Chicago company, uh,
for a San Francisco project.
Um, and to just, just to mention, there's many other ways
that have shown up because of these regulations in New York,
York and San Francisco.
You can ink dot, you know, print onto the glass, um,
you can ceramic fri, bake it on.
There's many different ways that are showing up
and are, um, with different costs and different.
So, so there are, uh, costs coming down.
This feature is also now like, sought out
by the students.
They wanna live in this college for its environmental
and sustainable architecture.
So to conclude, I just wanna say
that every single project I've shown you today have all been
award-winning architecture projects, not only
for the architects, but for the developers
who, who did them.
Um, and every single one incorporates bird safety.
And we're a city that is famous for its architecture.
So like the murals
and the public art I was showing you,
why can't we have our buildings be exemplary
for the bird safety as well?
Let's lean into our identity
to enjoy our city on the Mississippi Flyway
and have our buildings protect birds for our citizens
and visitors who love to see them.
Thank you.
Thank you so much. Thank you Jeannie.
Um, so our last, uh, speaker today, uh, Jennifer Clark
and Dr. Keller from Loyola University.
Thank you. I wasn't sure how to get it into the, to
The right form and then make sure.
Yep. There you go. Get your mic right in front of you.
My name is Jennifer Clark. I'm the Associate Vice
President for campus and community Planning at
Loyola University Chicago.
Um, I'm gonna actually advance
'cause I want you to see the picture more than that.
Um, as one of the most environmentally progressive
universities in the country, um,
I think Loyola was invited today to give you
a developer owner user perspective
on bird safe glass in building design and operation.
Um, but because not everyone is as familiar with Loyola,
I wanted to let you know, we educate approximately 17,000
students in the city of Chicago, um, on two campuses.
Uh, and almost 60%
of those students are coming from Illinois to the city.
According to our internal surveys, half
of all incoming students choose Loyola
because of its commitment to sustainability.
And in part because of the impact on student attraction.
Loyola has achieved the goal
of carbon neutrality earlier this year.
So I wanna tell you first
and foremost that the work you are doing here as a committee
is super important to the future generations
of current Chicagoans Illinoisans and,
and people who are moving here for college
and might, uh, hopefully stay after they graduate.
Loyola's Lakeshore campus,
which you can see in this picture, um,
is a little over 4 million square feet of, of space
that sits on 52 acres, um, in the 48th
and 49th wards right along the lakefront.
Um, we also have a water tower campus downtown
between Michigan Avenue and State Street.
That's in the second and 42nd wards.
That's home to our professional schools of law, business,
social work and education.
But the majority of the undergraduates are up in Edgewater
and Rogers Park development on the majority of
that Lake Shore campus in Edgewater.
And Rogers Park is governed by plan development number 34,
and it has been since the mid 1960s.
Um, however, even though the majority
of the campus zoning is determined by the plan development,
we still go before plan commission for approval
of new buildings with regard to lakefront protection
because the vast majority
of this campus sits within the Lakefront Protection Zone,
um, and has to go to plan commission.
Just last week, the plan commission unanimously approved,
and I don't have a picture of it,
I wish I did the development of a new 90 foot building, uh,
east of Sheridan Road for nursing and molecular sciences.
And that building is designed to be more than 25% glass.
It's about one and a half blocks from the lake.
It will utilize etch glass that doesn't diminish the divine,
the design or affect the views, which is something
that many people seem to be very concerned about.
Um, I wanna give the rest of,
I wanna just tell you a little bit about Loyola,
but give the majority of my time off over to Dr.
Ruben Keller. Uh, he's gonna speak to you about his work
to eliminate bird strikes on Loyola's Lake Shore campus,
but I wanna let you know that the headline is, in
the last 10 years, Loyola went from cleaning up a couple
dozen birds off the sidewalk every day to killing zero,
thanks to the work of Dr. Keller and his students.
Uh, yeah, thank you very much, uh,
for the opportunity to speak.
I'm Ruben Keller.
I am a professor in the School
of Environmental Sustainability at
Loyola University Chicago.
I began at Loyola in 2011.
Uh, prior to that, I'd had some experience
with the bird collision monitors.
Um, and it was pretty quickly apparent to me that, uh,
that we had a big problem with bird
collisions on our campus.
Um, like, sort of as a microcosm of the city of Chicago.
Uh, Loyola is extremely, extremely lucky
to have this massively privileged position
to be on the lakefront at, uh, of Lake Michigan.
Um, and we know that we're in a, uh,
a major migratory flyaway
and many, many birds, uh, fly out over the lake, uh,
during the evenings.
And then they, uh, they they come into land looking
for somewhere to shelter and rest during the day.
Loyola has some really great architecture, uh,
and a lot of that architecture is covered in glass.
Uh, and, uh,
when I began at Loyola in 2011, uh,
I organized a student group, uh, initially just to begin
to look at, at the scale of the issue.
Uh, and we pretty quickly identified that there were three
or four major buildings on campus, uh, that were, uh,
leading to a lot of bird collisions
and a lot of bird deaths.
Um, one of them, uh, it, it's actually shown here
with the blinds closed.
Uh, it's dead center, uh, just below center, um,
the whitish building,
that's our information commons building an absolutely
gorgeous building, uh, that has an entirely front
and back made of glass.
Uh, it was not designed in this way,
but if an architect were to try to design a building
that was going to lead to a huge number of bird strikes, uh,
then this would be a good blueprint to start with.
Um, obviously that was, that was not intentional.
Um, but my students
and I began to find a lot of birds there, uh, sometimes 15
to 20 per day.
Uh, and as others have said, we know that that was,
you know, that's a low estimate of the number that,
that are actually, uh, dying.
Uh, we went to the facilities department
and we've had this fantastic, uh,
zero financial cost solution ever since, uh,
for over a decade now.
Uh, that building has programmable blinds,
so those blinds are now programmed so that they're closed
between midnight and an hour
after sunrise, uh, during the spring
and the fall migrations.
Uh, and we very quickly went from finding 15
to 20 birds per day to finding, you know,
very rarely we find one.
Uh, so that's been an amazing solution.
Um, other buildings on campus have had similar issues.
And again, working with the facilities department, uh,
we've put in a range of, uh, a range of measures that have,
that have drastically reduced bird collisions.
Uh, those include putting up window films, uh,
various decals on windows, uh, adjusting lighting, uh,
and again, adjusting blinds.
So this has been a really great story.
It is just about put outta business, my, um,
my my student group that goes around looking for birds.
Whereas we used to come in with, you know,
sometimes dozens per day.
Uh, it's now pretty rare that we find one.
Um, and it's been really great to see the way that, uh,
Loyola has, um, has institutionalized this concern.
Uh, so we have this new building going up, uh,
that Jennifer just mentioned.
Um, there have been meetings between me.
I am now the resident bird expert, um,
and architects, uh, to advise on how we can make sure
that this new building has, uh, has bird protection,
uh, baked into it.
Uh, so the glass is going to have a frit pattern on it.
Uh, there is also going to be, uh, blinds, which we've found
to be very effective.
Um, so where, you know, as construction is going forward,
Loyola is committed to, uh,
to new construction being bird safe.
Um, I, I'll just finish.
You know, I, on a somewhat personal level, um, you know,
through the course of doing this project,
I've collected hundreds of birds, uh, dead,
uh, dozens of species.
Um, and
it's, it's incredibly affecting to do that.
Uh, these birds are often, you know,
not much larger than a golf ball.
They weigh far, far less.
Uh, and as others have mentioned, um, you know, it's,
it's just tragic to think that, that my campus
and my community, uh, is the thing that has sort
of prevented these birds from, uh, from moving among places
as far afield as as Alaska and Northern Canada, uh,
and central and South America.
Um, so it gives me great hope, uh, that we've been,
you know, what we've been able to do at Loyola.
Uh, I think that it can be a model, uh,
more broadly for Chicago.
Um, and it's also, it is just really cool
to be doing this very local, sort
of inherently place-based conservation,
but to know that it has this much,
much broader impact across the Americas.
Thank you.
Thank you both. Wanna thank
all of our panelists and open, uh, the floor.
Oh, oh, that's right.
Um, uh, vice Chair Knutson has put in a Rule 59 request.
Uh, could I, uh, have a motion to accept his Rule 59 request
for remote participation?
So moved by Alder Lawson. Um, all in favor say aye.
All right. Any opposed? All right.
Um, uh, vice Chair Knutson, are you with us?
Thanks, chair. Yep, I'm with us.
And thank you to all the speakers.
Fantastic. Thank you.
Um, so just opening up for questions. Uh, Alder Lawson,
Thank you, chair.
Um, I looked over to
and said to Bill Conway, is that Jeanie gang sitting there?
And then it is. And then I said, is
that Jennifer Clark sitting there?
And I can't see Amy Masters, but happy birthday. Um, well,
Happy birthday. So,
Uh, I want to thank you for putting
together an amazing panel.
Um, as uh, Jennifer knows, I am a, a Rambler alum
and have watched, uh, I mean, back in the nineties it was,
the sustainable culture was very different,
but still very, very important.
And so to see the university grow up, um, and expand
and create new buildings, uh, and, and pay attention
and go back and, and fix things that are wrong, um, is,
is really, really, uh, heartening.
Um, what's the new building
that you guys are doing east of Sheridan? You said?
It doesn't have a name yet,
but it is a building for the School of Nursing
and Molecular Sciences.
So it could be like Campion.
Oh, Campion Hall. Campion's gone, yeah.
Place in Campion Hall.
That's okay. Um, have you done any retrofits
of any of the older buildings?
You know, I see, you know, like Damon and Dunbar,
or not Damon Dunbar, uh, even Simpson, uh,
any, any work there?
Dr. Keller might be able
to tell you which exact buildings, right.
But we have done films, right?
Films on, on some of the more, the high impact, right.
Um, windows. And as he said,
the least expensive thing was just to put in automated, uh,
blinds and, and, uh, shade systems.
But you can talk about which buildings,
'cause Bennett knows them well,
alderman Lawson knows them well.
Yeah. It's, it's mostly the newest, the,
the newer buildings that have all of the glass.
Um, so I think we, the, um, the decals
and the, the window films have gone up on the
Norville Athletic facility.
Uh, the new Damon, um, uh, student center,
uh, and the IC
and Sullivan, um, is might be the oldest building that,
that was a really fun one to work with.
Uh, we realized that.
So, so, so Sullivan is, uh, right on the Lakeshore.
It also has a lot of glass.
Um, our student group worked with facilities, so,
so there are blinds in Sullivan, uh,
but they're manual, they're not computer controlled.
Uh, so we worked with facilities
and we put together flyers in, uh, Polish and Spanish.
Those were the languages that we needed.
Uh, and we work with the janitorial staff, uh,
and we've worked with them to educate them about the issue
and to ask them to please close the blinds at the end
of their shifts during the migrations.
Um, they've been a huge help and, uh,
and that has been a huge help on, on that building.
Great. Um, thank you. Um, Ms.
Gang, I just wanna say big fan of your work.
I'm from Rockford, um, so Northern Illinois strong here.
Uh, of course, I've been here for a very long time and I,
and I wish you could design every building that we're doing,
um, and appreciate that you are appreciate involved in
public projects, not just at the airport,
but in the park district, um, and,
and really making that mark.
And I think your words carry a lot here today.
Um, I had just a couple,
couple questions I think were answered.
The, I don't want to,
a danger zone here is 10 stories and under.
Right. As opposed to from, from some of the numbers.
I was seeing if, if one
of the experts could just speak to that,
It's generally considered the first a hundred feet.
That's why that was that a hundred hundred rule.
It's the level that
that birds are spending most of their time at.
And it's also, uh, reflections of trees
or any kind of landscaping might, uh, cause a false image
for the birds to fly towards.
So the tallest, uh, canopy level, uh, that would be next
to a building as well as, uh,
where the birds are spending most
of their time is the first a hundred feet
on a building. Got
It. Brian, did
You wanna say That?
Uh, you, if you review the existing ordinances, you'll see
the older ones are lower
and then they get higher and higher.
And so now we recommend a hundred feet.
If you go outside
and watch a bird move around, it spends most
of its time going between trees
or between green space, maybe a little bit
above a tree to go further.
So we kind of, as a rule of thumb, say, you know,
how tall do the trees get
and double it, um, as probably where most
of the problems are gonna happen.
Uh, it's a little tough to have like real precision on that.
'cause a lot of the data are come from Annette's group
picking up a bird on the ground.
And if there's a hundred or, uh, excuse me,
a hundred story building, you don't know
for sure which one it hit.
And I do know for sure they hit higher than a hundred feet
up, even in Chicago, 'cause I've got pictures of it.
Um, but most of them are a hundred feet and down
and we're kind of extrapolating from data to get there.
And we also do a hundred feet above a, um, uh,
amenity deck because again, you've, you've sort
of created a second ground level
and you go a hundred feet over that
because if you've got trees
and landscaping on an elevated deck, you wanna go
to the glass that goes up, up, you know,
above what's the new ground area
where birds will be spending their time.
So it's, it's the ground up a hundred feet.
And then any kind of amenity deck
or terrace, uh, we're worried about the glass
that's gonna be in the proximity
of birds spending their time on
that elevated level and up above. Right.
So I, I was gonna ask about the geography of this.
'cause I think we hear about downtown a lot.
We hear about pie rises a lot.
So I, I appreciate Loyola being here.
Um, my community is along the lakefront, uh, from diversity
to Addison, basically.
Um, but it, it sounds like this, this is an issue, uh,
that really does, does it have a geographic concentration?
It's, it's everywhere. We get birds.
We, we concentrate our monitoring in, in a,
a restricted space, uh, as much as we can cover in the,
the downtown vicinity.
But we have records of, of birds throughout the area.
Every office, park, museum, college campus, uh,
any lakefront buildings, whether they're high rise
or low rise are, are likely to have bird strikes at them.
And we simply just can't be at all these places.
But we do have a, a network of people
and callers that, that let us know about things
that are happening far beyond just, you know,
downtown isn't the only place where birds
are hitting buildings for sure. For
That. I, I appreciate hearing that.
Sorry
For that follow up. So,
downtown area,
but I've also heard a lot
of this happens along the entire lakefront, would you say?
Yes. I, I'd anything along the lakefront is,
is a high risk area.
'cause birds are using that
geographic boundary to travel along.
They've, as I said
before, they travel along these areas that used to be kind
of safe resting spots before we had buildings
and cities along.
What, what was a, a, a safe
and productive pathway for them when they, they came
through the, uh, Chicago area.
If there's any neighborhood level data that
that's available, I think that's always helpful for, uh,
individual council members to understand
that this is a problem in your neighborhood too.
Um, and so I, I would love to see that.
Um, uh, I wanted just to echo, one of our public speakers,
uh, mentioned that it's always another cost, right?
Um, but why take it out on the birds?
And so I would love to you, you, you know where I'm going.
I would love to find a way, whatever we're going
to implement, um, to help streamline something else, right?
Um, we, we know we have, uh, housing crisis,
we gotta keep building here and,
and if, if we add another regulation, we have
to make it easier on, on the other side to do that.
And so I just wanna put that out in the universe and,
and wanna be helpful on that.
Um, I think everything else was answered.
Good presentations, folks.
And, and thank you all for, uh,
everything you're doing today.
Thanks. Thanks, chair.
Thanks Alder Lawson.
Um, other questions from committee members?
Alder, mana Howorth.
Thank you, chair. Thank you everyone for being here.
Um, I'm Lenny Mana, Howorth 48th Ward,
Alder along the lakefront, Edgewater in uptown.
And I appreciate, um, especially, um, Amy
for being here, the artist.
We just opened up our CTA, uh, redline stations,
Ann Ann Hargrave.
And, um, I, I wanted to point out that my,
my community is very excited about, um,
conservation generally and also about, um, wildlife
and, and bird migration.
In fact, a a couple years ago I visited the, uh,
Lincoln Park Zoo and their youth program,
their number one issue.
And these were folk kids that came from all over Chicago.
Their number one issue was, um, bird migration.
And so, um, thank you Loyola for, for coming today
and speaking on the strategies that, that you mentioned,
which doesn't just include, um, you know, glass,
but also other things that you could do including, um,
lighting, um, and the blinds, automatic blinds.
Um, and, uh, I also wanted to say, um,
you know, thank you for boma for being here.
And as alter, um, Lawson was mentioning we, you know,
with the green social housing that, that I was a sponsor of,
it's very important for me to build
around our new transit lines.
And so we, we don't wanna hinder that,
especially in the 48th ward where we really need housing.
Um, but it should be also, um, matched with
what we're doing, um, along the lines of, um, bringing,
bring this issue to, to the forefront.
So I appreciate, um, this hearing
and all the advocates in the gallery today,
and I hope that you will continue to reach out to your own,
uh, representatives, um, at the local and state level
because it, it's just not here in Chicago
and this is happening across the whole state of Illinois.
And we should work together, um, to create policy that,
that, um, that makes it, uh, welcoming
for, for all the birds.
It was disheartening seeing the images of, of so many birds.
And, and, uh, one thing that struck me, one, somebody said
that these are not, you know,
natural selection is one thing,
but these are the best of the best
and we are killing the best of the best, and that's wrong.
Um, so I would like to, to, um, continue
conversations about this, especially as, again, we want to
build a sustainable Chicago, which includes development,
that encourages that.
Um, and, and,
and I will say that the developers, um, that I have worked
with in the last several years in Edgewater
and Uptown are very excited, um, to tell us
and the community about the things
that they are doing along the lines of sustainability.
So it is not something that we,
we are not doing together already,
but this is just one component again, that's, um, um,
an option in our sustainability matrix.
Um, so what is it that we can do to improve, uh,
and, um, strengthen the things that we're doing
to protect our, um, our wildlife, including our birds?
So thank you. Thank you for that.
Thank you Alderman. Um, Alder Cruz, um,
one of our co-sponsors.
Yes, I wanted to take the moment to, um, thank everyone,
especially your chair
and your staff for collaborating with also
with my staff on this
and making sure that we had a great panel today.
And I think we are able to see it today, a mix
of everything, um, you know, from having BOMA here too, um,
to express their, um, comments.
I, I think it's great. This is what we wanna have.
We wanna make sure that everybody is part
of these discussions, but this is great.
And again, when we talk about, like,
of course the intention is not to hinder any type of, um,
um, buildings or any, uh, coming to, to our communities,
but it's also about doing the right thing.
Um, and it's showcasing those
who have been doing the right thing.
So for example, like with, um, McCorick, um,
Google the new building from Lo Loyola University
and others, it is really encouraging to say this is
what is important for, for our residents,
but also what is important for, uh, our environment
and making sure that we're calling those to the,
do the right thing and be able to incorporate these things.
And I know others have been part of, um, some
of the programs that we talked about today,
but again, it is just making sure that we, um, showcase
we bring it and we educate also, um,
everyone when it comes to this topic.
So I appreciate the partnership. Thank you all.
Thank you. Um, I wanna thank the panelists
and I wanna touch on a couple points that, um,
hopefully kind of summarizes this a little bit too.
So one, um, definite thank you to my team, Leslie, Gina, um,
who you all got to work with in coordinating this,
this whole effort, and of course all of our advocates.
So, um, this has been part of a process as we had, um,
advocates right against bird collisions working with us.
And we know, hey, there are efforts, right, led
by Alderman Hopkins last term, um, to move Chicago forward.
Um, I'm of the opinion personally that we should have
a bird friendly ordinance that goes further
and we're gonna work towards that.
And I also know that, um, we've heard a lot of really great
things that people are doing to, to alter Cruz's point.
Um, and so thinking about, we've got the glass option.
What I heard from you all, um, as experts as well, is
that bird friendly glass one, it's not just one thing.
There are multiple ways to make glass, um, safer,
um, and help to reduce bird collisions
and that it's not nearly as expensive one
as developers had made it out to be.
But also it sounds like there are technologies
that have advanced to make it
a lot less expensive just overall.
Um, so from decals, um, to the ceramic etching,
right, the really cool etching of the personalized touch
that was really cool at that college.
Um, and that we have options other than glass, right?
We've got changes we can do with our lighting
or with the great examples from Loyola University about just
facilities management
and boma, that's what you guys were working on too
with your members is like, Hey, let's just,
let's just close our, let's close our blinds,
let's turn off our lights during key times.
And so I, I appreciate everyone being here
and I do appreciate, um, the perspective from BOMA of, hey,
from the government side,
if we're gonna do some more
regulations, what are we doing there?
And I hear Alderman Lawson saying, you know,
how can we come up with some of these solutions?
Um, so I'm hoping that, um, we, we've got a lot
to work on as we move forward with our policy.
And so I just want to kind of highlight that,
that these are, this is like actually very helpful
to think about a multi kind of lateral, um, approach
that we can take, that it's not just about our bird friendly
glass, um, that there are different things we can do.
And then educational component is, is probably gonna be one
of our biggest tools, um,
especially in making change now while we work on the
policy moving forward.
And so, you know, as an older person, um, you know, working
with developers in, in our communities,
I think these are things that we can also ask for.
So even just the, the question that we could be having with
proposed developments or large renovations of, Hey, are you,
what are you doing for, you know,
prevention of bird collision?
Um, what are you doing for bird friendly design?
You know, not all of us have the Lakefront protection
ordinance, um, to open up some of those conversations.
But I think that that's, um, a commitment certainly
that there are things that we can be doing like right now
today in our conversation.
So I'm hoping that that's helpful for committee members
of asking those questions.
And, uh, that I would ask my colleagues
as you're having those conversations, any information, um,
feedback that you are getting from your builders, um,
and building management companies around this,
if you could filter that back through us.
'cause I think that would be helpful for the Department
of development to hear as well
as we move forward in this effort.
Um, there, um, there were a lot of puns that came up
from the team, uh,
during our work on this from cranes in the sky to, you know,
Chicago's for the birds.
Um, so I'm gonna leave it
to somebody more interestingly creative to come up
with a slogan.
But I think that we also can't forget that economic impact.
Um, people come here for a lot of reasons.
Um, and as we are always, um, you know, looking to
lift up our city as, um, one of the best cities, um,
to live and to visit, I think in the world.
Um, I thought that was really interesting too,
to see the econ economic impact of the birding community and
because of the migratory route that we're on the real, just,
you know, I'd say privilege that we have, um,
but also responsibility that we have in order to make sure,
um, that we are a safer passage.
So there are a lot of good reasons for us
to continue this work.
Um, and I'll give one last call for questions from
Alder Lawson or Alder Lawson. Mana Howorth.
Thanks Chair. Um, to, to that point about birding, um,
my ward is very close to Montrose point,
and um, that was very interesting to me to hear.
Um, I did get binoculars too,
so if anybody in the box is interested in walking with me,
uh, to Montrose, I I would love to join you.
So please think of that. Thanks,
Montrose. Point number one.
I learned a lot today.
Um, so well having no further questions, um, from the body.
This concludes the items
before the committee today, so we'll send out any answers
that were not answered, uh,
during today's meeting through the chair.
Um, so the only one
that I've gotten noted here was looking at some of the data
that we have around collision
and seeing if we can get that at a neighborhood
or kind of ward level data.
So our team will work, um, with our,
our partners in advocacy on getting that information.
Um, and I just wanna thank our guests.
Again, thank you for being here.
Thank you for your passion, your expertise, um,
and your commitment to helping Chicago
be better on this issue.
Um, just invaluable insight.
So would there be no further business before the committee?
May I have a motion to adjourn? All right.
So moved by Alderman ah, Howorth.
Um, it is exactly 1208.
We adjourned.