Maryville Gets City Council Zoning Okay, Nearing Final Steps of Approval Process

It's been a big week for the proposed Maryville development plan. Yesterday the City Council's Zoning Committee gave its approval to allow redevelopment of the site, and today the full City Council approved the same. This is the farthest any plan has come in the years-long attempts to get it done, and we're thrilled.

The next -- and final -- steps toward actually seeing something happen are getting the approval of the City Council's Finance Committee (because it's a TIF area) and then the approval of the full Council.

We've been waiting for years to see something besides abandoned buildings at this site, which have sat empty since 2005. Ever since 2008, when Sedgwick Properties Development Corp. first entered into a sale agreement with the owners, and since 2010, when former alderman Helen Shiller created the Montrose-Clarendon TIF to enable them to buy it, we've been waiting to see it begin generating taxes and adding to Uptown's tax base. Ms. Shiller must be thrilled to see one of her last big accomplishments as alderman finally approaching fruition.

This enormous 3.5-acre property hasn't been on the the tax rolls since 1939, when the tax-exempt Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus became the owners. That's the year Gone With The Wind and The Wizard of Oz premiered in theaters. That was before the U.S. entered World World II. It was before the Cubs' last pennant in 1945. Total revenue the city has collected from this property during all the years since: $0.00.

It's 2016. The buyers want to buy. The sellers want to sell.

• A sale will enable the property to pull its weight and start generating taxes. You know, the things that pay for city services. 
• It will create 20 new units of affordable housing in the first building, and more units when the second building is built.
• It will generate sales taxes from the 30,000sf of planned retail and commercial space.
• It will ensure that within eight months of construction beginning, $4.6 million will go toward saving the deteriorating Clarendon Park Fieldhouse (which is $4.6 million more than the Park Department is able to provide). 
• It will ensure that $5.8 million goes into the Low Income Housing Trust Fund to help Chicagoans earning 30% or less of the area's median income to remain in their neighborhoods and homes.
• It will create jobs, as well as housing and shopping opportunities for Uptowners, and bring more residents to our community.

Let's get it done. It's time.