Monday, August 17, 2015

CPNA Approves Cedar Street's Zoning Change Request; On To Z&D Next


The proposed Cedar Street development at Sheridan and Wilson is a little closer to becoming a reality. We'd heard rumors, but today it was confirmed by Ald. Cappleman's office that residents living within the boundaries of the Clarendon Park Neighbors block club unanimously approved a zoning change at their meeting on August 6th.

Now the proposed new building -- seven floors, 138 residential units, 52 parking spaces, retail on the ground floor -- moves to the 46th Ward Zoning & Development Committee, where representatives will vote to advise Ald. Cappleman on the zoning change request.

Since January of 2010, when El Pollo Loco closed most of its Illinois stores, a corner of a prime intersection has sat empty.  A multi-year guaranteed lease between El Pollo Loco and the property owner added to the lack of development there. We think six years of an empty lot at one of Uptown's busiest intersections is long enough.

10 comments:

  1. You mean the Northwestern U purple is gonna disappear?

    Say it ain't so!

    For development to occur anywhere you generally need a strong national and regional economy. We have that. Once you have those two preconditions you need local leadership that's open to development and also works diligently to bring businesses in. We have that in Cappleman.

    The economy is right for retail and residential development around here. We need to take advantage of that and get these developments going. At some point the national and regional economy will slow down again. Might be next year. Might be in ten years. Last real estate boom lasted from say 1993-2006.

    Luckily for the most part our neighborhood groups are relatively pro development and the anti Cappleman horde is largely reduced to the dwindling band of hirsute spirit infused wannabee hipsters at JPUSA and among the twitterati. Oh and the twerkeratti.

    You want to see how neighborhood groups can screw up development look to Lincoln Park and the Children's hospital site. That hood and if you look around its retail badly needs new residents and the NIMBYS have downsized it and slowed it down by years. Metaphorical tumbleweeds blow down stretches of Lincoln Avenue and they're fine with that. They screw the overall hood and more importantly the city as a whole.

    Damn them all to NIMBY hell!

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  2. Who heads up this block club because I've not received an email or any type of communication from anyone for well over two years, maybe 3. The facebook page doesn't get updated and there's never any communication at all from anyone. The last I heard the association was dissolved because so many of the board members moved and no one would take over. I was a part of the leadership but couldn't do it all by myself after the others resigned/moved.
    So the question is... who runs CPNA now and why is it that people that have been a part of this block club since it started know nothing about any of the things they have recently approved ie: zone parking and this development.
    I think this needs to be looked into because someone is talking on behalf of a lot of people that have never been informed of anything that their block club is doing and have never had the chance to voice their opinion beyond the online poll for zone parking.
    Just strikes me as fishy that all of a sudden they are having such an affect on the neighborhood while people that live in this area know nothing???

    Development is good and it's great to see Uptown grow but I hope there is something the alderman is doing to help protect the current rents. Development raises the rents and so many of us are getting priced out of a neighborhood we love. We moved here when Uptown was labeled as "unsavory" and now have to leave our homes...

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    1. I was prices out of one of my old neighborhoods because gentrification took place and I was a renter. I learned my lesson and bought a place in the Uptown. Now, I won't get priced out and after refinancing a couple of times, my mortgage payment is lower than rent. It's not for everyone, but it solved my issue of getting priced out of neighborhoods.

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  3. There is no displacement from this lot. Zero. Nada. Nil. Not one single person is having to move from this lot. Not one single person's rent is being raised at this lot.

    THE BLOCK CLUB DIDN'T MAKE THIS DECISION OR THE ONE ABOUT PERMIT PARKING. They were both voted on and approved by people who live in the area. ANYONE LIVING IN THAT AREA COULD VOTE. I take it you didn't attend the meeting or vote in the parking poll. They were both posted on Uptown Update WHICH YOU OBVIOUSLY READ. They were both posted by the alderman's office, which you should read. Hell, I knew about the meeting and I don't live anywhere near Clarendon Park. You want a voice in what happens? Show up. Don't blame it on "I didn't get an email, poor me" or "the big bad shadow-y block club is making decisions for me." It has nothing to do with the block club, which isn't making any decisions. It has everything to do with the people who live in the block club's area bothering to show up and vote.

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  4. So happy to hear these developments are progressing. Thank you IrishPirate for your eloquency....

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  5. I'm not against this development and nowhere in my previous post did I say I was.
    Boohoo- I'm sorry, I think you misread because I didn't say anyone was displaced from this lot, I said that new development raises rents (meaning in the surrounding community). I know that no one lives at this location. It’s a fact that new developments increase property value in the surrounding area, which is a good thing. An unfortunate side affect of this is that many people that love where they live get priced out by the increasing rents in the neighborhood.
    My questions surrounding the block club are valid. How can I attend meetings if I don't know when they are? I've never seen a CPNA block club meeting announced on UU. I have previously attended the zoning meetings where I had an opinion to share and do try to attend all of the neighborhood meetings that I can with my work schedule. I also said that I helped run the block club previously so before you accuse people of something take a look back at the facts that I provided. I have been active in the community so I have a right to speak up.
    How can people show up and vote when we don't know when the block club meetings are? Can you provide a link or some type of info that shows where I can stay current with the club because I still can't find any info on when meetings are and what topics the club is addressing. There’s no mention of a meeting for this development on their facebook page so how do people know about it if we don’t get an email and it’s not posted anywhere? This is the point I’m trying to make. I apologize if I didn’t communicate that correctly.
    Apparently this block club has been revived but not very many people know this. Many people commented on the posts surrounding the zoned parking that said they were unaware of the block club also so it's a valid concern.
    We just need to know who, when, how to contact the club so we can be a more active part of it.
    Trust me, I'll never get on here and bitch and complain about a problem that I haven't tried to help with- I think you and I agree on the fact that unless you get involved you have no right to complain. I think you just missed the parts where I did explain my involvement and since I did help with the block club previously, that's what makes this so concerning to me. Who’s running the club and how is there so many people that don’t know about it? I apologize ahead of time if it’s somewhere in plain sight that I’ve missed but I’ve looked online and can’t find anything.
    When I say that someone is talking on behalf of the group, I mean that someone is obviously speaking with the alderman and arranging these meetings with the premise that they are representing the majority opinion of the club. I voted online regarding the zoned parking. If there was an online vote for this, I did not see it. I did not mean they are making these decisions for us. I never said decisions are being made for me, I realize that decisions are made by votes, we just need more people to be aware of these things so they will step up and vote.
    We all want an affordable, safe, clean neighborhood so please stop jumping all over people that voice their concern, especially since you said you don’t even live in the neighborhood and you have no idea about this block club and its history. In response to your ending statement of “ It has everything to do with the people who live in the block club's area bothering to show up and vote.” I agree with that, however, how do people do this if they don’t know when and where to go or even what the issues are? If you find an answer, please let us know.

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  6. In light of the comment by chicago2013, the statement in the article that "residents living within the boundaries of the Clarendon Park Neighbors block club unanimously approved a zoning change" is misleading. It suggests that all the eligible residents had a chance to vote when, in fact, they did not.

    Furthermore, the result of a valid and fair vote is rarely unanimous. Unanimity might be expected, however, if someone handpicked the voters so that the result would be the desired unanimous vote. Could it be, might it be, that only real property owners were invited to vote, while renters were left out?

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  7. A reader forwarded us this email he got about the meeting. In addition, the meeting was mentioned on UU in this post.

    Here is the full text of the email sent out on 7/24/2015 from clarendonparksafety@gmail.com:

    "Hi Neighbors: Here is some news about an upcoming meeting regarding a significant new housing development at Sheridan and Wilson. Please consider attending.

    Dear fellow Clarendon Park neighbor:

    As you may have heard, Cedar Street (FLATS) has recently proposed two new 7-story apartment developments in Uptown. The first is proposed to be located in the current parking lot at 1050 West Wilson, immediately east of the former bank building and just west of Kenmore. The second is proposed to be located at 975 West Wilson, at the current site of the former Burger King and most recently El Pollo Loco, located at the southeast corner of Wilson and Sheridan.

    This second proposal falls within the boundaries of Clarendon Park. It calls for a 79-ft., 138-unit apartment building, with 52 parking spaces. To be approved the proposal would require rezoning from its current B3-2 designation to a B3-5 designation. For that reason the office of James Cappleman, our 46th Ward Alderman, has requested neighborhood review, input, and comments on the proposal. Your views will be made known to the 46th Ward Zoning and Development Committee when it reviews and ultimately votes upon this proposal.

    The Alderman’s office and the developer have called a meeting with the residents of Clarendon Park to discuss the proposal. The developer will present its proposal to the neighborhood, and we will be free to ask questions and make comments. The specifics for the meeting are as follows:

    DATE: Thursday, August 6, 2015

    TIME: 7:00 p.m.

    PLACE: Office of Cedar Street (FLATS), located at 1075 West Sunnyside (corner of Broadway and Sunnyside), 3rd Floor

    Please attend, or, if you cannot, please make your views known to someone who can attend and who will make your views known. This is an excellent opportunity to make known your views on this significant proposal in your community.

    The plans for the proposed development can be found here: http://james46.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Wilson-Sheridan-proposal.pdf for the drawings andhttp://james46.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Wilson-and-Sheridan-46th-Ward-Dev-App-06.05.15.pdf for the application. Both are available on the Alderman’s website at: http://james46.org/projects/46th-ward-zoning-development-committee/."

    Please pass this information along to any other residents of Clarendon Park who may not have received this email. And please make every effort to attend this important meeting. Thanks!

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  8. Provided without a hyperlink because hyperlinks upset my views.

    I could add some categories to this guide.

    http://www.chicagoarchitecture.org/2015/08/19/a-field-guide-to-chicago-nimbys/

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