Dear Neighbor,
I sponsored a community meeting last November on a proposal for a zoning change to allow the Chicago Math and Science Academy (CMSA) to move into the old Clark Mall site at 7212 N. Clark (across from Touhy Park).
The proposal was met with overwhelming support at the community meeting, which over 100 community residents attended, and my Zoning and Land Use Advisory Committee recommended I support the proposal, as well. Accordingly, I have decided to support the zoning change.
At my urging, the owners of the old Clark Mall site at 7212 N. Clark (across from Touhy Park) agreed to enter into negotiations sell the property to CMSA. The parties reached an agreement, and CMSA developed plans to retrofit the property to meet their needs. In order to move to the site, the school needed to change the zoning from its current C2-2 designation to RT-4.
Some concerns were expressed at the community meeting about the school's plans to make use of Touhy Park across the street for some of its athletic activities. School officials responded that they already use the park, and the Touhy Park supervisor, who attended the meeting, reported that the park has suffered no adverse impact as a result. Some neighbors of the park expressed the belief that the school's presence in the park would make the park more secure.
Others in attendance expressed concerns about the traffic impact on Clark Street. The school officials assured the residents that employees would be outside the school at the beginning of the school day and at dismissal directing traffic and insuring the safe passage of the children. It was also pointed out that the traffic impact would be far less extensive than the property's former use as a shopping mall.
The original construction plans called for small windows on the Clark Street side. I and others at the meeting expressed the desire for larger windows, and as a result the school revised its plans to increase the size of the windows.
The City Council will vote on the proposed zoning change at this Wednesday's meeting.
The school administrators have an ambitious construction schedule and hope to be able to move into their new home by the start of school in September of this year.
If you have any questions or further comments, please reply to this e-mail or call my office at 773-338-5796.
Sincerely,
Joe Moore
Blognotes: On the surface, all this seems well and good. A quality school that's outgrowing it's current location, wants to move to a bigger spot in the neighborhood.
Here's the problem. Joe Moore's not-so-truthful email poof. Let's set the record straight on how this happened so quickly.
Joe Moore held one infomercial.
* He didn't care that DevCorp didn't approved the land be kept under the commercially zoned banner for tax purposes. (i.e. their SSA #24 money)
* Joe Moore didn't bother having further debate on if the school would use Touhy Park for athletic activities. Does anyone remember the Latan School?
* Joe Moore didn't offer further debate on the safe passage of the children in regards to the new fire station next door. He didn't give a shit what the community thought.
With all the serious issues on the table, Joe Moore diverted your attention to the little cosmetic issues in the email poof.
The original construction plans called for small windows on the Clark Street side. I and others at the meeting expressed the desire for larger windows, and as a result the school revised its plans to increase the size of the windows.Joe Moore rammed this through the system before anyone could have further debate 3 weeks ago. If you don't believe me, check it out yourself. PDF document, page 2.
NO. 16771 (49th WARD) ORDINACE REFERRED (11_19-08)And most important of all. Who's funding the estimated $11 million project? As tight as money is these days, a detailed list of funding methods would offer real transparency to this project. Because we really don't need another hole in the ground on Clark Street.
To classify as RT4 Residential Two-Flat, Townhouse Multi-Unit District, instead of. C2-2 Motor Vehicle Related District, the area bounded by: SEE ORDINANCE F"OR SPECIF"IC BOUNDARIES (Map 19-H) 72I2 North Clark Street.
14 comments:
===Some concerns were expressed at the community meeting about the school's plans to make use of Touhy Park across the street for some of its athletic activities.====
===Others in attendance expressed concerns about the traffic impact on Clark Street.===
===DevCorp's concern is primarily that the site retain a commercial zoning classification to preserve the commercial character of the Clark Street corridor.===
This proposal sure doesn't sound like it was met with overwhelming support at the community meeting like Joe Moore claims.
===The City Council will vote on the proposed zoning change at this Wednesday's meeting.===
Joe Moore knew about this on January 20, 2009. Then he gives the community two days notice.
How convenient.
Craig,
You are starting to lose me. This is unadulterated good news for the area. There are always concerns and other viewpoints, but even people with concerns may be in support of something.
As you may know, I am no fan of Joe, but that there seems to be a viable use for the "mega mall" site FINALLY, after at least 20 years of it looking like it does, makes me VERY happy. That the site is going to an entity such as CMSA is absolutely perfect. An adaptive reuse is considered "green" for just one thing.
Clark Street has been a main thoroughfare, a commercial thoroughfare for 75 years. The Mega Mall was a department store, Zayre I believe, originally, so although for the past few years there has not been much traffic to it, which has not always been the case.
Public Parks work in partnership with schools all over the City to provide outdoor activities. The Park Supervisor essentially supported CMSA in regards to Touhy Park getting more use from them. The danger of fire engines. For Pete’s Sake. One, City kids should be smart enough to avoid the very large, siren screaming vehicles that come out of the Firehouse. And two, I for one am not aware of fire trucks driving over children anywhere as a regular occurrence.
You cannot have it both ways. You cannot dump on Dev Corp, and then use their argument. Who cares what Dev Corp thinks? As taxpayers we should all be concerned in that a school does not pay property taxes, so that parcel will no longer provide any tax revenue to the City/County.
I see in re-reading your commentary that you are just using these issues to illustrate Joe's e-mail puffery, which is valid, but come on. This is really good news for the area, and even though we may not like Joe, we should like this positive development.
===my Zoning and Land Use Advisory Committee recommended I support the proposal, as well.===
Really? Where's the so-called transparent on-line zoning records Joe Moore promised us in 2007?
For what it's worth, I agree with you, 'i live here too'. From the looks of the site drawings, this retrofit of the building will be a huge 'upgrade' from it's current condition and look. Of course, Joe's last minuet announcement and lack of more open community discussion is what we've come to expect from him, "notification not consultation".
There probably wasn't much opposition because most people in the ward have learned that opposing zoning changes is frustrating and a waste of time. By the time anyone in the community finds out about it, it's a done deal.
I am not necessarily opposed to the Charter School's new location, but there are good reasons why sound urban planning does not locate schools on busy commercial streets.
1) It takes some of the most highly taxed property off the tax rolls.
2) It creates safety and traffic problems for the kids, their parents, and neighborhood residents. Clark St. is already a parking lot after 3 pm, a few hundred more cars will turn it into a nightmare. The argument that urban kids are somehow too savvy to get hit by a car is beyond ridiculous.
3) It creates no new jobs, services, or other opportunities for the vast majority of the residents of the neighborhood.
It seems to me that this is just another attempt by our alderman to try to make the ward "look good" prior to the next election without having to do any heavy lifting, like attracting new business or services to the ward.
Remember when Joe opposed locating the new fire house on the megamall site because the megamall was such a valuable incubator for jobs and businesses in the ward? Now that it's been vacant for a few years, Joe is willing to take whatever he can get. This is the Rogers Park way, why set your sights high when that requires so much effort? Yes, the economy is bad right now, but it will recover. If we allow Clark St. to be tranformed into a not-for-profit ghetto, it may never recover.
Maybe Alderman Moore realizes he'd better quickly accomplish some things for the ward before the next election, now that is is clear President Obama has no work for him in Washington.
Ortis said, " If we allow Clark St. to be tranformed into a not-for-profit ghetto, it may never recover." You mean like Howard Street and the neighborhood north of Howard?
Are these people nuts?
The Mega Mall building is actually three separate buildings.
1. The southernmost third is an old garage or warehouse that was converted to a retail store. I'm pretty sure it dates from before WWII.
2. The northern section, next to a parking lot was built as a Jewel in the early 50s.
3. The middle section was built in the 70s to connect the other two buildings. An old, brick, 3 story courtyard apartment building was taken down for this.
The southern section has been remodeled or altered so many times, they're going to have to spend a fortune to bring it up to code for a school or flatten it!
I can't wait to see Joey's next campaign donation statement!
Public institutions like Library's, Fire Stations, Parks, and Schools are the exact opposite of ghetto-isation.
Lane Tech on 2 main streets, Gordon Tech, main street, Wells HS on a main street. Glenbrook North on a main street, etc, etc. It is pretty common that schools are on main streets.
This location has a large parking lot. That is one of the pluses of the site.
The firehouse SHOULD have gone at the mega mall site. The fire dept, the City, and the traffic engineers preferred it to the site it finally located at. And, to put it where it is they had to PUT OUT OF BUSINESS several viable and busy stores. That the owner of the mega mall somehow got the support of the Alderman for his "small business incubator" is the true joke in all of this. It was an indoor flea market. I tried, but I couldn't/wouldn't buy a pair of socks there!
Dollar stores, and other quasi crappy "shopping" choices are what you should be fearful of, not a math and science academy.
It's a crappy part of the community. Replacing it with a proven, successful school is an absolute upgrade.
I'm no fan of Joe, but I like this change in our neighborhood.
I think it's great for our hood. Man, you guys hate Joe a little too much. Get over it. This is a GREAT thing.
Let's go back to the beginning for a second. Joe's "not giving a shit" about the busy street and the use of the park were addressed in the meeting. Kids, will be able to avoid being hit by cars. There are plenty of schools on even busier streets that attest to this. Second, the park is better for CMSA's presence there. It is safe and under adult supervision of coaches.
As for the windows being bigger...this is a school concern more than a public concern. Anyone ever ask a teacher if they wanted larger windows facing a busy street? Perhaps a teacher might want to avoid having their students look out onto Clark and have people look in and make distractions.
I'm sure we all have our reasons to dislike Joe, but I feel like the school will have a positive impact on the community. As for traffic, there is a large lot with an alley for drop-off/pick-up. Most students walk to school anyways.
The refurbishing of a seedy old flea market into a state-of-the-art learning institution is hardly the creation of a "non-for-profit ghetto." While I know we were all hoping for a Lord and Taylor, a Dick's Sporting Goods or Cheesecake Factory to buy the property, the economy being as it is, it looks like we'll have to settle for a great school :(
To those of you complaining about the loss of tax revenue: TAX REVENUE IS GENERATED TO FUND THE INSTITUTIONS THAT YOU ARE COMPLAINING ARE TAKING OVER YOUR REVENUE-GENERATORS!! We have a governor who was impeached for trying to take money for a senate seat; do we really need to draw and quarter an alderman for trying to use public funds to create a new school? If he WASN'T creating quality schools, you'd be complaining about THAT. Just admit you don't like the guy, but don't punish a successful school because of your personal animosity towards a politician-- guess what? they're all corrupt liars, it comes with the territory-- pick and choose your battles.
Furthermore, in regards to Touhy Park, 90% of the students at the school live in the neigborhood. So what you are really complaining about is a group of local residents using a park in a neighborhood in which they live. Perhaps it is the idea of residents playing ORGANIZED sports that angers you. I beleive the school will forgo a move to plant a school flag on the property designating its use for its students only. Imagine, a park with students playing organized sports instead of gang-banging after school-- frightening concept, isn't it?
Of course, we don't want to discount the stellar job that Senn and Sullivan have been doing. A look at the number of police calls to those respective schools may serve to explain why Chicago Math and Science has an application list longer than Blago's indictment docket. While it may not generate monetary revenue, I beleive that it will be worth the investment in other ways, however un-American they may seem (opportunity, knowledge, books, oh my!)
As far as traffic, if you built a super Target or something comparable on the property, guess what? Traffic would be bad! While leaving the property a vacant eye-sore (as it has been for years) may get you to your house five minutes faster, I beleive that the rewards of its occupancy will far outway its detriments. With progress comes traffic-- look at Lincoln Park and Andersonville. You can't complain about your neighborhood being a hole adn then turn around and complain that the improvements are holding up your commute-- YOU MOVED INTO THE CITY WITH A CAR!! WHAT DID YOU EXPECT!! If you want smooth rides during rush hour, move to Batavia or take that long silver thing with tracks and wheels that is within blocks of you house.
To property owners-- I'm going to let you into a little secret that the suburbs figured out years ago: good schools raise property value. Instead of lamenting the loss of such a fine institution as the Mega Mall whose presence attracted gentrification like Magnito on amphetamines (X Men reference), I beleive a good school will be a step towards restoring and enhancing your property value in the future.
To the chamber of commerce-- I think that any resaraunteer or store owner can attest to the fact that their business is enhanced by the students who receive off-campus lunch and desire edibles after school. Furthermore, the lure of breadsticks, pizza, chinese food and Mexican cuisine is enough to make any staff member venture out into the streets in search of taxable foodstuffs. The school will being partially paying back whatever loss of revenue the community has suffered due to the loss of the Mega Mall (what's that you say? It's closed and producing no tax revenue?) I went to the Mega Mall in its hayday; most of the vendors dealt only in cash-- but I'm SURE they were reporting most of it. Yeah right!
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