Children’s Hospital site headed for the Plan Commission

The two-and-a-half year saga regarding plans for the redevelopment of the Children’s Memorial Hospital site in Lincoln Park is nearing its endgame.

A recent email from Alderman Smith’s office linked to an outline of a deal (pdf) reached with McCaffery Interests that enables the developer to seek approval of the approval at the February 20 meeting of the Plan Commission.

Ald. Smith’s email focused on what the neighboring community “won” in the latest round of the process. One item in the outline not mentioned in the email struck me as perhaps the most significant element of the deal: the floor-area-ratio (FAR) of building space to land was reduced by less than 5% from the 3.67 sought in the developer’s most recent proposal to 3.5.

Skip a near-sighted focus on the trivia of free parking, bicycle racks, etc. Was a FAR-sighted developer the clear winner in the latest round of negotiations?

(Visited 217 times, 1 visits today)