McJunkin3
What's going on over at the McJunkin Building? This gets curiouser and curiouser.
Yet another zoning notice -- the third -- has arrived.
Funny, this one is dated September 26 (the previous one was dated September 19), but they both say that the application would be filed on September 22nd.
Funnier still, the newest one has no mention of commercial housing, but says it's for "more kinds of businesses" and would allow an existing restaurant to get a liquor license.
Now, call us suspicious, but ... nothing's changed but the date and the alleged purpose for the rezoning. Not a word about "commercial housing."
Yet... YET! ... this law firm shares office space with the Chicago Community Development Corporation, a "for profit corporation, a subsidized rental housing developer & mgmt firm, you may recall is the only developer other than Holsten to feed at the the WY trough. CCDC partnered with Voice of the People in Uptown on spending $2M from the WY TIF on 3 Uptown subsidized rental apt bldgs orphaned when William Higginson crashed & burned in 2006." (Thanks, Hugh.)
This law firm has also donated to Ald. Shiller's campaigns and has been paid by her for legal work. It has no web presence or web site. All of which leads us to believe that it's simply the in-house firm for CCDC, and something is very rotten indeed in the State of Uptown.
The more they try to confuse the point with talk of fuzzy kittens and rainbows, the more this whole rezoning thing stinks to high heaven.
"The rezoning will allow an existing restaurant to have incidental liquor sales."
ReplyDeletetrue
very lawyerly
the new zoning WILL allow incidental liquor sales
but what they're NOT telling you is that incidental liquor sales are ALREADY permitted under CURRENT zoning, B1!!!
BUSINESS AND COMMERCIAL DISTRICTS
see the row in the use Table for "Restaurant, Limited"
Limited Restaurant. A restaurant in which there is no service of alcoholic liquor or in which the service of alcoholic liquor is clearly incidental and subordinate to the primary activity (prepared food service)...
TERMINOLOGY
"The applicant intneds to use the subject property to allow additional types of retail stores ... The rezoning would allow more kinds of businesses to operate on the property."
ReplyDeletealso true
also very lawyerly
notice how these sentences would be pretty much at home in any notification letter
translation:
"We are asking for a more permissive zoning because it is more permissive."
by definition, B3 is more permissive than B1
notice how the 2nd paragraph tells us NOTHING we didn't already know from the 1st graph ("from B1 to B3") and the zoning code
dear neighbors,
ReplyDeletemay I please remind you that under City law it is your RIGHT:
"Written notices must contain ... a description of the nature, scope and purpose of the application or proposal"
I am not a lawyer but I believe this notification letter, same as the 1st 2, fails to make a good faith effort to discharge their notification obligation, and I am not a judge but I believe a judge would agree
if this letter is allowed to stand as a written notification letter, if all they need to do is quote our zoning laws back to us, then we might as well dispose of our right to "a description of the nature, scope and purpose of the application or proposal"
We still have not seen a zoning notice on this building anywhere. What is the deadline for it being posted?
ReplyDelete"We still have not seen a zoning notice on this building anywhere."
ReplyDeletethanks for checking & posting
"What is the deadline for it being posted?"
ReplyDeleteif the app was filed on or about Mon 9/22/08 we should expect the sign on or about Mon 9/29/08, being generous and giving them 5 business days, that is, today
CHAPTER 17-13 REVIEW AND APPROVAL PROCEDURES
17-13-0107-C Posted Notice
... the applicant must post a notice sign on the subject property in accordance with the following requirements:
1. The notice sign must be installed within 5 days of application filing and remain in place until the date of the hearing. ...
3. The sign must be posted in such a way as to be plainly visible from each roadway or right- of-way abutting the property.
4. The [posted] notice must include:
(b) a description of the nature, scope and purpose of the application or proposal;
Any folks who happen to walk by the McJunkin today, please check and see if you spot the Zoning Notice sign. Let us know.
ReplyDeleteso
ReplyDeleteany signs?