“We’re talking about developing a city here, with new schools, roadways, infrastructure, transportation. This area is larger than the Loop.”
– Alderman John Pope, 10th Ward, on the quickly advancing plan to redevelop the US Steel South Works site in South Chicago with approximately 3,000 condos and apartments and 1 million square feet of commercial space. The City Council’s Zoning Committee approved the plan yesterday, paving the way for a vote by the full council next week.
McCaffery Interests‘ Market Common South Shore would cover just 77 of the almost 500 acres available for redevelopment in an area bounded by by 79th and 83rd streets, Brandon Avenue, and US Route 41. Construction on that proposal alone could take up to 30 years, according to the Chicago News Cooperative.
I’ve found myself down near the South Works site a couple of times in the past year, once while I was touring South Chicago with Angela Hurlock of Claretian Associates, and again when I was driving around South Shore with Jeff Heilbrunn. In neither case did we spend much time looking at or talking about the site, but you can get a sense of the areas immediately surrounding the site in the videos above and below.