Wednesday, July 29, 2015

New Residential Development Proposed For West Belle Plaine



Neighbors living near 931-933 West Belle Plaine recently received mailed notices that a zoning change is being proposed, one that will enable the conversion of an existing 40-space parking lot into a 20-unit four-story residential rental building with 21 parking spaces.  You can see the renderings here and the developer's application here.

According to the 46th Ward's website, the proposed zoning change was accepted at a June 1st Buena Park Neighbors meeting.  We've heard from several neighbors of the parking lot who just found out about the proposed development when they received the July 22nd letter.

If you're trying to visualize the location of the parking lot/proposed new building, it's a half block west of the intersection where The Shift, Michael's Pizza, and GNS Foods are located. At that point, Belle Plaine is a narrow residential block that runs between Broadway and Sheridan.

3 comments:

  1. It's a good looking street. Too friggin narrow, but then so are the brains of people who might oppose something being built here. Here's the google maps street view.

    I would like to register a complaint though. The renderings are rendered "sideways" on my computer screen. I have to hold my head sideways to read it because I'm too lazy to click on "tools" and flip them clockwise. In the future I suggest the alderman have his staff have the rendering come show up in the proper configuration or send a chiropractor over to unstick my neck from it's current position.

    There will certainly be a loss of off street parking if this is built. Such is life is zee big city. Does Thorek have any rental parking? Howard Brown Center?

    I hope the current real estate cycle lasts long enough so many of the underutilized lots in the neighborhood become properly utilized. There's quite a bit of smaller developments going on around here. That may be one of the few opportunities on a side street south of Montrose. Most of the development opportunities are on the main streets. I walked by the UHaul the other day and that empty medical office building just to the north of it is still seemingly vacant.

    Hint hint. Wink wink.


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  2. Why are people who oppose a MASSIVE building here narrow minded. Parking sucks and 20 units as opposed to 12 (under current zoning) would worsen that. Furthermore with upzoning the building would be taller than every other building on the street.

    Good luck with the chiropractor.

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    1. Rob, leave sarcasm to the professionals.

      You're likely going to get your desire to see the zoning stay the same. I fully expect enough neighbors to object to the zoning to kill the change. Se la vie. By the way ONE additional story would NOT result in a MASSIVE building. FIVE additional stories......yeah that would be relatively MASSIVE.

      It's counterintuitive, but 20 smaller units might result in less need for parking than 12 larger units. It might not. Halsted Flats is essentially fully leased and they have plenty of parking available. Cars just aren't as popular as they were back in the day when Harrison Ford and I appeared in "American Graffiti: Uptown." We raced our cars up and down Broadway and then had malted drinks at the drive in.

      I've seen that stretch of street described as "quaint". If you mean no alley and barely wide enough to get a car down-- yeah then it's "quaint".

      It's a pretty street, but I wouldn't want to live on it. Reminds me of a larger bizarro version of Alta Vista Terrace. Purdy, but barely functional in the modern world.

      I'm barely functional which means I need to live on a functional street. Ah revoir.

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