Tuesday, June 1, 2010

UCRD Launches Petition Drive Opposing Proposed Development

From Uptown Coalition for Responsible Development:

Strong Turnout as Neighbors Express Shock on Montrose/Clarendon Plan
More than 60 residents turned out on short notice last Thursday evening for a meeting to discuss the fate of the Maryville site at Montrose and Clarendon. At the meeting, the Uptown Coalition for Responsible Development presented the developer’s actual plan as filed with the city, as opposed to the “conceptual” drawings and informal opinions presented at the developer-sponsored meetings at Clarendon Park. For instance, the developers showed a watercolor of a light, airy three-floor storefront with bustling street activity reminiscent of a Saturday afternoon on Navy Pier. This is not what is proposed. Their actual filed plan calls for an 85-foot-high eight-story-tall concrete and glass building with walls running right up to the lot line at the sidewalk, with no setback, no green space, and no amenities.

At the meeting, UCRD encouraged neighbors to make their voices heard. The quickest and most effective way to make an impact is to sign the opposition petition and send a letter to the Chicago Plan Commission, which has control over the zoning changes required for the plan to go forward. UCRD has more information and links to its petition and an example letter to the CPC on its web site at http://uptowncoalition.org/.

Several neighbors suggested that because of the inaccurate and incomplete information, there should be a series of new community meetings held, as is routinely done in other neighborhoods. Examples of wards with much more neighborhood-friendly processes include Ravenswood and Wrigleyville, where a series of open meetings were held to discuss the proposals for the Sears store site on Lawrence and on the empty lot site near Wrigley Field (see the UCRD web site, http://uptowncoalition.org/, for details).

Your help is needed. There may be very little time left for resident input before the city votes on the plan.

Please voice your concerns. Write a Letter! Sign the Petition!

11 comments:

  1. I've heard Helen speak of the importance of density control, building set-backs, proportions, fitting into the neighborhood...all when speaking about proposed buildings in our area that, once built, go against everything mentioned in meetings. This is her last hurrah. Once city hall has rubber-stamped it, we can't do much...remember FWY?

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  2. This is great. Keep up the opposition. Please sign the petition and write a letter. We can fight this. Please join Facebook Group "Neighbors Against Lake View Station"

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  3. "The eight-story box would also supposedly contain residential housing units, offices, and nursing home facilities."

    Doesn't this sound familiar???

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  4. GOOD LUCK WITH THIS. WHEN I LIVED ON BELLEVUE & RUSH, THEY WANTED TO TEAR DOWN PART OF THE CORNER TO PUT UP THE HOTEL THT IS CURRENTLY THERE. MANY MEETINGS AND HUNDREDS OF RESIDENTS LATER, MONEY TALKS AND BUSINESSES CAME DOWN, APARTMENTS CAME DOWN AND THE HOTEL WENT UP. AT LEAST HOLD THE DEVELOPER TO CONDITIONS. WE DID.

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  5. Um, wasn't this exactly the kind of high rise development that Walter & Helen came to Uptown to fight against? Didn't Slim say that he and the Heart of Uptown Coalition were going to keep the developers and their huge lakefront highrises out?

    My, my how times have changed.

    I say forget petitions. If you really want to fight this fight, don't play nice. Shiller certainly didn't get people to take her seriously by playing nice in the sandbox.

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  6. The opposition is growing! Please sign the petition, write the letter and get as many people involved as possible. Please join the Facebook page 'Neighbors Against Lake View Station'

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  7. Sounds exciting. I wonder who are all the people heading up this organization? I couldn't find it on the website which seemed a little odd.

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  8. I know most of the residents at the 4343 N. Clarendon condo are really against it. I will spread the word as hundreds here are against it. We want to see the beautiful park and grass not a concrete wall as we look out across the street.........

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  9. Look again, this time on the bottom of the petition itself.

    ...created by Uptown Coalition for Responsible Development and written by David Hemmings.

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  10. Just Wondering asked who the Uptown Coalition for Responsible Development… it was started by neighborhood residents who went to the developer poster session at Clarendon Park and were appalled by what the plans implied for the neighborhood. One, an architect, went to City Hall and got the actual plans the developer filed and realized that the information provided by the developer was incomplete and the development was shockingly huge and invasive. In response, (outrage and a sense of injustice is a great motivator) they founded UCRD and started reached out to concerned neighbors and TIF-and and real estate-savvy Uptown residents seeking support.

    The website is brand new so it’s not coming up on Google yet, but the address is http://uptowncoalition.org.

    PLEASE NOTE THAT THERE ARE STORIES OF NEIGHBORHOOD SUCCESSES on the UCRD web site http://uptowncoalition.org. Check them out. Neighbors in Ravenswood and Wrigleyville caused developers to change their plans to be more friendly to the neighborhoods they were developing in. And if you know of other examples please send them to uptowncoalition@gmail.com and we’ll get them on the web site.

    UCRD will hold another meeting in the next week or two. In the meantime, please sign the petition (http://www.petitiononline.com/UCRD_1/petition.html) and write a letter to the Chicago Plan Commission (instructions at http://uptowncoalition.org).

    Janis Tiffin and David Hemmings UCRD

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  11. But you're going to get a doggie park.



    Ingrates.

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