If you thought the creation of North Town Village, which replaced the former Cabrini-Green public housing development, was a staggering transformation of that part of town, you haven’t seen anything yet.
Within four years that area will likely have another 650 housing units, in the form of the long-awaited North Town Park, (see plans) after the Planning Commission gave the project the nod this week.
The development awaits an official vote from City Hall sometime soon but will likely break ground in the summer of 2006.
So what can we expect to see at the 20-acre site, bounded by West Division, North Larrabee and West Oak streets and Seward Park? Townhomes, mid-rises and attached maisonettes will be available at market and affordable rates, alongside homes dedicated to CHA tenants.
The development provides for seven acres of recreational land, office and commercial space and a network of roads to be laid out on the traditional grid system.
Chicago’s former skid row already has a Dominick’s and two elementary schools are in the works.
While the development is good news for market-rate buyers, many observers of the city’s makeovers of public housing developments are watching closely to ensure the Chicago Housing Authority and developers make good on their promise to provide new homes for displaced CHA residents.
But apparently the residents are too. Alderman Walter Burnett Jr., whose family famously hails from Cabrini-Green, told the Commission that Cabrini-Green residents were heavily involved in the negotiating process with the private developers.
“The residents in this neighborhood, as they say in slang, ‘They ain’t no joke,’ ” Burnett told the Commission.
“They’ve been standing real strong to make sure they receive everything they are entitled to.”