Anyone who wishes to build on the old Children’s Memorial Hospital site may be in for an uphill battle. We’re told the land is zoned specifically for a children’s hospital, so if the hospital sells the land to a developer, a zoning change will be required. Zoning in the surrounding area permits residential and commercial buildings up to about four stories.
If any developer wants to build higher than that, he or she will have to “sell” their proposal to the nearby community groups, according to Ald. Vi Daley’s office. Lincoln Parkers aren’t known for their fondness for high-rises, or even mid-rises, for that matter. So does that mean we’ll see a drive-through McMansion project instead?
Lincoln Parkers are known for endless short-sighted stupid strategies to restrict housing supply and raise property values.
I lived around the corner when Children’s built its parking garage and watched the local idiots destroy the most viable and fun commercial / night-life strip in Chicago by refusing to allow the hospital to build ground-level retail along with the parking. That strip along Lincoln Avenue has never recovered the viability it had 30 years ago.
It’s time for the loudmouth urban planner wannabes to stretch their vocal chords. And, of course, the alderperson will exercise little or no leadership whatsoever – it’s the Lincoln Park way.
Lincoln Park belongs to Chicago, not to Lincoln Parkers. It borders on criminal urban neglect to allow the local alderperson to allow the locals to misdirect its development.
The city and the federal government spent a bloody fortune in subsidies to make this area what it is, and it should be developed for the benefit of the entire city and its visitors. This site cries out for density and mixed-use rather than for low-rise low-density residential development.
Joe Zekas is absolutely right. The tradition of “aldermanic perogative” does great damage to this city. It guarantees graft along with a new unfortunate development -tyranny by ignorant volunteer neighborhood committees that do not represent the public. Experts in traffic, in retail, in architecture, in affordability, etc., etc., will never be heard as long as Vi Daley is alderman. We are a neighborhood with a high percentage of professionals, yet nothing gets resolved in a professional manner.
Mark,
I disagree to this extent: I see a very disciplined, very professional approach to transforming my beloved Lincoln Park into a vapid clone of a low-density suburb.
Hell, some of those folks are soliciting bids on gated streets in their fantasies.
The “Aldermanic veto” is only one aspect of a system that’s been designed to maximize opportunities for corruption.
Vi Daley and her posse of the ignorant are very welcome to live in the cocoon of a gated community. I think they can find a few about 2 hours west of here.
I forgot. Vi Daley has no posse. She was appointed to the job just like her predecessor was appointed. What do you think those people charge each other?
Mark, I’d like to hear more from you about this and about the zoning and Margie’s affair. Please contact me.