City Fast-Tracks Zoning Changes for Montrose/Clarendon Mega-Center

UCRD launches petition to oppose plan

Alderman Shiller and the developer, Sedgwick Properties Development Corp., are rushing to secure zoning approval to jam a huge development – including two 30-to-40-story skyscrapers, a boxy eight-story 150,000 square foot office/retail/housing complex, and several other buildings – into the Maryville Academy site at Montrose and Clarendon.

In mid-June, the Chicago Plan Commission could vote on zoning changes required to build the mega-center, which will start with a rectangular eight-story box that runs right up to the edge of the sidewalks and accommodates no green space or community friendliness. It's purpose is supposedly to house a grocery store, and a gym (apparently nearly identical to the Jewel and World Gym one block west on Montrose, but with higher walls). The eight-story box would also supposedly contain residential housing units, offices, and nursing home facilities. Subsequent stages of the proposal would plant two giant skyscrapers on top of the boxy structure, one thirty stories tall, and one thirty-nine stories tall.

The zoning changes sought would reduce restrictions on the site to zone B3-5, one of the least restrictive categories possible, usually reserved for large shopping malls, hotels, and office buildings. And yes, according to the developer, a later phase of the project would see the construction of a hotel on the site, although the developer does not specify who would actually want to stay there or what the location is supposedly convenient to.

Petition Opposing Mega-Center Launched

We (Uptown Coalition for Responsible Development) have launched a petition drive to demonstrate community opposition to the mega-center plan, the proposed zoning changes, and the related Montrose/Clarendon TIF district. There's an online version of the petition available at http://www.petitiononline.com/UCRD_1/petition.html. We encourage you to sign and provide your e-mail address for ongoing updates.

More Mega-Center Details

Directly across from and next to the mega-center site on Agatite Avenue are a series of regular Chicago-style three-story brick buildings, all of which would be vastly overshadowed by the looming development, and all of which would be suffocated in traffic smoke, as the proposal calls for cutting an alley from Montrose to Agatite along the west side of the mega-center for truck and passenger car traffic to move in and out of the loading dock and five-story garage, which would have entrances located along the alley on the west side. The buildings on Agatite would directly face the blank wall of the parking garage, which is planned to tower over the adjoining buildings by at least fifteen feet.

It's pretty much like taking Illinois Center from its home at Wacker and Michigan and plopping it down next to Clarendon Park. The proposal is ridiculously out-of-scale with the rest of the neighborhood.

The plan also calls for selling a grassy strip of land along the north side of Montrose between Clarendon and Marine Drive to the developers for the construction of luxury condos right in the park, and calls for the construction of another large residential building on the Maryville parking lot side on the northwest corner of Clarendon and Agatite.

Mega-Center Parking Impact

Parking in the neighborhood would suffer horribly, if, as the developers claim, they build 850 housing units and only 1,100 parking spaces. The plan calls for constructing a building on the site of the Maryville parking lot where 125 parking spaces are currently available to neighborhood residents at Clarendon and Agatite. So if half of the 850 housing units are two-car households (a distinct possibility) then the additional street parking burden on the neighborhood would be 300 cars. That's the shortfall of 175 cars from the 850 housing units (850 x 1.5 cars = 1275; 1275 – 1100 = 175), plus the removal of the 125 spaces available in the Maryville lot. The upshot is that there would be 300 more people each evening cruising the streets looking for a place to park.

TIF Funding

The creation of a Montrose/Clarendon TIF district is essential to this plan. The developers are seeking $69 million from the taxpayers. Amazingly, the City’s Joint Review Board met on April 2 and approved the TIF, despite the fact that it had not received a completed TIF application and that planned development documents were not available, and that the people proposing the TIF did not bring a map board to the meeting, so members complained they did not really understand what they were considering.

During the Joint Review Board meeting, regarding the fact that the TIF application had not been completed and that the planned development documents were not available, Dinah Wayne, with the Department of Community Development, stated (this is a direct quote from the meeting minutes)…

“Yeah, you know, the Alderman's position when we said, well what if the deal ends up not being raised, her position was she'd like the TIF here for something to happen to these buildings and in case, so we think that they're going for single --”

Single what? Single Room Occupancy? The notes trail off here, leaving the reader to fill in the blanks.

Community Benefits?

In return for the $69 million in TIF funding, the developers claim they’ll give $ 4-6 million to renovate the Clarendon Park dilapidated field house and make other park improvements. What most people don’t know is Clarendon Park has always been eligible for funding from the Wilson Yard TIF. Clarendon Park follows the same TIF guidelines that gave Millennium Park $94 million from the Central Loop TIF. The proposed development would also destroy the tennis courts and build on what precious green space we have. The neighborhood, via the Alderman, is making tremendous concessions to the developers, who are the only winners in this deal.