He really means, "It's a done deal"!
I thought Pioneer News Star was going to cover this event. By Rogers Park standards this was huge. Mind you, it wasn't one of the huge Chicago Tribune or Channel 7 world news issues. This was Rogers Park news.
The meeting was regarding the future of ADELPHI THEATRE. Or as the Alderman put it, "The tear-down of the ADELPHI on North Clark".
Everyone I know found out about this at the last minute of course. What else is new? I got wind from a email that was sent by Sandi Price at DevCorp North. No, not directly, I got the e-mail from a third party. Even with the last minute notice, the crowd flowed in. Ten rows of chairs filled up quickly. In most of the ten rows, there were 7 chairs to a row. Thats over 70 people for the math challenged. Katy Hogan and Kevin O'Neil had to open the room divider to hold the overflow crowd of 85 plus neighbors and a few Alderman clingers.
Hogan and O'Neil along with Rene Carmago and Gregory Altman were part of Alderman Moore's puppet, cheerleading team on this night. They were responsible to clap, nod along and agree with Alderman Moore when he gives them the cue. They had their hands full on this night.
The Alderman arrived seven minutes late. The meeting started shortly after. After a political speech by DNC member Moore we got down to neighborhood business of a private redevelopment scheme calling for the demolition of the ADELPHI and the construction of a residential condominium building with three commercial units.
We also had the annual threat of NO zoning change, NO set-a-sides. This is getting tiring to hear. Lets hear about the current property.
The ADELPHI opened in 1917 and was designed by Edgewater resident and architect J.E.O. Pridmore. Seating 1,300 people, the ADELPHI has seen decades of use. In fact, the still-single-screen was most recently showing Bollywood extravaganzas and other Indian films before going dark.
The "Grand Re-Opening Coming Soon" has been promised on the marquee for some time.
Clearly, this stinks with the hint-of-possible-influence. According to the News Star, the developer gave $1000 to the Alderman.
Here we have developers wanting to tear a smaller, possibly historic property and build something the neighbors disapprove of. Yes, many didn't like this project. Sound familiar? In this case a five story building full of expensive condos even the Alderman said he couldn't afford.
I have a hour of tape on this meeting so I am going to do this meeting in parts. There are a lot of great qoutes by Alderman Moore and Kevin O'Neil. Not to mention the developer. The crowd had questions too. Many didn't get answered.
Kevin O'Neil told the developer to " Just say YES", to one of my few questions. This one about warning potential buyers of the Special Service Area tax. This would being including in the marketing, with the"YES" urging of Mr. O'Neil the new marketing director?
The Alderman wouldn't answer any questions regarding the Special Service Area tax. The developer didn't have a clue what an SSA was. More to come. Anyone wanting to add their two cents?
Oh by the way, how many high end, property tax raising condo units are being built? With the zoning change, up to 53 dwelling units could be built and less than 40 parking spots were displayed on the drawings.
12 comments:
It make sense to have this kind of deveopment on the corner of Clark and Estes. It's a nice looking structure and I'll welcome its new residents.
Joe on Estes
"It's been my long-standing policy not to accept campaign donations from anyone who has a zoning or land-use issue pending. That's not a requirement of the law. That's something I impose on myself to remove any hint of possible influence."
-Alderman Joe Moore
as quoted by Marcella Tardy
April 5, 2000
Lerner "News Star" News
Gordon Magill, owner
Family Properties of Chicago, LLC
Family Properties Holding Company, LLC
7078 N. Clark St.
Chicago, IL 60626
Contributions to Citizens for Joe Moore
$250.00 2/6/2001
$200.00 12/13/2001
$500.00 6/14/2002
$200.00 2/5/2002
$250.00 9/25/2003
$300.00 8/19/2004
Source: Illinois State Board of Elections Campaign Disclosure
Alderman Moore's appearance was another paid info-mercial for a real estate developer.
I don't mind the new housing, but do they all have to look the same? In Wrigleyville, they keep tearing down old houses and building these three-story condos that are exactly the same in design and structure.
The building pictured above looks the same as the new building on the corner of Chicago and Main in Evanston (minus the parking garage). There is another building that looks exactly like this that was just built on the corner of Chicago Ave. in Evanston as well – I can’t remember the cross street.
Are the building codes that restrictive? Why do all of these buildings look like they were xeroxed from the same blueprint?
Alderman Moore's (aka Goofy) local ward "community" Zoning And Land Use Advisory Committee (ZALUAC)
Kevin O'Neil
Chairman, Zoning And Land Use Advisory Committee
Secretary, Board of Directors, DevCorp North
Chairman, Publicity and Public Relations Committee, DevCorp North
Past President, DevCorp North
Dorothy Gregory
President, Board of Directors, DevCorp North
Moore contributor
Rich Aronson
Board of Directors, DevCorp North
Secretary, Rogers Park Builders Group
Real Estate Broker, Camelot Realty of America, Inc.
Moore contributor
Joanna Barnhart
Howard SSA manager, DevCorp North
Board of Directors, Rogers Park Builders Group
David F a g u s
49th Ward Democratic Committeeman
Board of Directors, DevCorp North
Moore contributor
Charese L. Jordan
Past President, DevCorp North
Member, DevCorp North
Past Treasurer, Democratic Party of the 49th Ward
Past Chief of Staff, Alderman Joe Moore
Citizens for Joe Moore paid campaign consultant
Michael Land
Staff Assistant, Alderman Joe Moore
Member, DevCorp North
Advisor, Rogers Park Builders Group
Resident of the 50th ward
Michael Glasser
Member, DevCorp North
President, Rogers Park Builders Group
President, Magellen Properties
Owner, Birchwood Manor Apartments, 1227-37 West Jarvis
Michael James
Owner, Heartland Caf�
Board of Directors, DevCorp North
Jay Johnson
Owner, Howard Theater, Uptown Theater, Wayne Senior Center, Morse Senior Center, and others.
Howard-Paulina TIF beneficiary
Moore contributor
John Fitzgerald
Associate Director, Howard Area Community Center
Richard Moran
Board of Directors, Rogers Park Community Council
Cathy Crabbe
Board of Directors, Rogers Park Rotary
Burton Reif
Attorney, Fischel & Kahn, Ltd
Board of Directors, Rogers Park West Ridge Historical Society
past President, Rogers Park Community Council
Artis Wright
Rogers Park Community Development Corporation
Karen Leonard, tenant
Ken Johnson
Corbin Zimmer
If anyone has any changes or additions, please post here. Thanks.
Property taxes need to be addressed and preferably capped. I think that is the answer, not stopping all development.
Craig, are there any developments that you do approve of? (just curious- not being hostile or anything)
I have to say I like the building also and maybe it will draw more of a variety of businesses to Clark Street.
rogerparker posted:
>10% set aside is not the city of chicago sponsored 15% set aside.
PogersRarker posted:
>Actually, there is no "city-sponsored 15% set aside". Daley doesn't want to piss off developers so he won't approve it.
To clarify our fair City's existing affordable housing set-aside laws, such as they are...
1. In March 2004, a new batch of Alderman was sworn in, and for a very brief time, the City Council started to resemble an actual legislature, more so than at any time since Council Wars. Some Councilmen dared to act like actual legislators and attempt to make law an ordinance not blessed by the Mayor. The Aldermen sought to mandate affordable set-asides in new condominium buildings. The Aldermen got a lesson in Life in the Big City when the Mayor submitted an alternative proposal. The Mayor proposed affordable set-asides ONLY when city land was sold to a developer at "below market" price.
Alderman Burnett offered an amendment to include all projects that get a zoning change. Alderman Shiller offered an amendment to cover all projects using former city land, regardless of price. Both of these ideas were referred to committee and died.
The Mayor's version won out on April 9, 2003.
Since then, the Mayor's affordable housing ordinance has been largely ineffective in addressing housing affordability in Chicago. For one, the City is short on vacant land, particularly on the north side. For another, it is a simple matter for the Mayor to hire an appraiser to say the City's asking price is market rate.
2. Not to be confused, a separate but related ordinance, the Chicago Partnership for Affordable Neighborhoods ("CPAN") ordinance, kicks in whenever a developer gets City land at below market price OR gets a zoning change. But the enabling ordinances for CPAN carefully do not call out a particular set-aside percentage, in order to offer maximum negotiating flexibility to the city. So CPAN is technically not a set-aside law. Different projects request different forms of "assistance" from the city, (financial assistance, a deal on a city lot, a zoning change, etc.) and so the set-aside percentage the city asks for depends (maybe nothing). The CPAN ordinance was also sponsored by Mayor Daley. Assessing CPAN's effectiveness depends crucially on what you consider "affordable," but at least we can say there are a handful of select folks actually living in CPAN homes in Chicago at this point.
To summarize, we have one law that specifies a set-aside percentage but doesn't apply to zoning changes, and we have another law that applies to zoning changes but doesn't specify a percentage.
As one person at the meeting said, "At least the prostitutes and drug dealers will have a better climate to work in."
>We are overlooking the obvious here- this developer will eventually end up taking a bath on this project.
This is a version of the myth of the real estate developer as Hero of Urban Renewal. According to this popular line of rhetoric, we urban neighbors should be extremely grateful that our alderman located a developer willing to invest in our sorry 'hood.
Rest assured, these developers are no dummies. They have thoroughly studied this project. They would not be doing this unless they were VERY sure they would make money, lots of it.
>With the zoning change, up to 53 dwelling units could be built and less than 40 parking spots were displayed on the drawings.
Parking requirements relaxed in "transit-served locations"
Although Moore claims his recent series of meetings on his proposed zoning re-map were educational, and Ms. Campbell of the MPC had one slide that MENTIONS that the 2004 Chicago zoning law provides for "transportation-oriented development," no detail is provided. Moore had hand-outs on density, usage, and floor-area ratio, but no hand-outs on parking. It is crucial that the neighbors understand that "transportation-oriented development" is code for a significant parking requirement discount for developers.
Here's the relevant section of the new zoning law:
17-10-0102 Off-street Parking Exemptions and Reductions
17-10-0102-B Transit-Served Locations
1. In B, C or D districts, minimum off-street parking ratios are reduced by 50 percent from the otherwise applicable standards for rehabilitation or reuse of existing structures located within 600 feet of a CTA or METRA rail station entrance.
2. For new construction in such locations, the Commissioner of the Department of Planning and Development is authorized to approve off-street parking ratio reductions of up to 25 percent if the Commissioner determines, based on information provided by the applicant, that transit use and alternatives to private automobile use will be actively promoted and/or that other factors are likely to result in automobile ownership rates that are lower than indicated by applicable off-street parking ratios.
3. The 600-foot distance specified in this section must be measured along a straight line between the rail station entrance and the entrance of the building for which the parking reduction is requested.
Source:
Chicago Zoning Ordinance
Chapter 17-10 Parking and Loading
Of course, what constitutes "actively promote" or "other factors" is left undefined. The mere fact of not offering a parking spot for sale with a condo may constitute "actively promoting" public transportation. This 25% reduction is a major gimme for developers, reducing their responsibility to plan for their tenant's cars on a wish and a prayer.
Note well that no public hearing is required to extend the discounted parking requirement, it is a purely administrative decision of the Commissioner of the Department of Planning and Development. (It is not even a zoning issue.) No elected public official is accountable. In practice, what this means is that the developer purchases a one-parargraph memo from the alderman endorsing the parking requirement discount, and it happens.
Developers hate the parking requirements. They would much prefer to go corner-to-corner on the lot and sell condos on the ground floor. The problem of sticking to Chicago's traditional 1-to-1 ratio of residential units to parking spots is particularly acute in the dense B3 districts such as are proposed for Clark, which allow developers to build the 5 or 6 story, 50+ unit style of buildings, which you can see on sections of N Ashland in Chicago and S Chicago Ave in Evanston. If they tried to offer a parking space for each unit, they have a problem: the buildings are so huge there is literally not enough land for a parking spot for each unit they would like to build. The developers anticipate (correctly) that they will not be able to sell the neighbors on a building where the 1st TWO floors are a parking garage.
The Rogers Park Metra station has 2 entrances, Lunt and Greenleaf. The specified 600 feet radius will cover most projects from roughly Touhy down to Farwell, most of the area on Clark Moore proposes to up-zone. Much depends on where the developer sites the main entrance to their building.
We need to understand that, not only are dense, mid-rise condo projects coming to Clark Street under Moore's plan, but that those condos will have significantly less parking than they might normally expect. Already people from outside the neighborhood DRIVE to our Metra station and park in the low-density areas west of the tracks. Even if the developers are successful in selling many of the condos to regular Metra commuters, this is still America and in practice they will still own cars. If anything they will park their cars west of the tracks during the week and use them on weekends.
This issue of the parking discount also applies to the CTA stops, but it did not come up and Moore and Co. did not raise it. Adjacent B zones are recommended for each of the CTA stops, but Moore failed to explain that these are not ordinary B's in terms of parking. This is another example of how Moore does a disservice to his constituents by stumping for zoning MAP changes while glossing over the important zoning TEXT changes of last year.
That developers soon come to regard anything that is POSSIBLE under the zoning laws as their god-given RIGHT, note that apparently the 25% parking discount has already been applied to the paln for the Adelphi site.
Post a Comment