News

Index (ordered by date news item was received)









Alderman Mary Ann Smith's Ward Zoning and Planning Committee Meetings

Joe Trendl is our voting Block Club representative. He volunteers his time to attend these meetings and to create the notes that summarize the proceedings. Click on Contact Us to obtain his email address. Notes on recent meetings are collected in an archive.

Health & Sanitation Enforcement

Block Club Activity

11/22/06: Alderman's Letter - Sheridan Rezoning Update:
In a brief letter to members of the Ward Zoning and Planning Committee, the alderman stated that there would be no WZPC Meeting in November or December of this year. She also provided the following news on the effort to rezone along Sheridan Road:

The rezoning from RM6 to RM5.5 of lots on Sheridan Road in the 48th Ward from Foster north that possibly could be redeveloped was approved by the city's Committee on Zoning on November 16 and will be going soon to the Chicago City Council for passage. The height in RM5.5 is capped at 47 feet on lots with 75 foot frontage or less and 60 feet for lots with more than 75 foot frontage. This does not mean that nothing ever will be built on those lots, but does mean that a developer cannot build "as of right" and allows the community more input on proposed developments. Thanks to ASCO, Greg Harris, our chief of staff, and all who worked on the successful down zoning.

Submitted by Joe Trendl
[index]

9/29/06: Alderman's Office Praises the Block Club:
In an email message, Marge Britton of Alderman Mary Ann Smith's 48th Ward Office thanked our block club for the year-long effort involved in negotiating with the Admiral's developers so as to ensure the community's needs and points of view were represented. The email follows:

From: Marge [mailto:marge@masmith48.org]
Sent: Friday, September 29, 2006 10:45 AM
To: Joseph R. Trendl; Greg Harris
Cc: Don Brown
Subject: Re: Our thanks to the 48th Ward

We truly appreciate the hard work that went into the final plans for the new Admiral. The block club's evaluations and suggestions resulted in a proposal that is better for the community, and according to Glen, better for the Admiral. The negotiations between the block club and the Admiral are a model of community process at its best. It was a pleasure working with you.

Marge Britton
48th Ward Service Office
773/293-8412

We owe considerable thanks to the individuals who worked so hard to involve and inform the community, and to make our neighborhood case before the Admiral. Some of the people who made a big difference, in alphabetical order, are: Rick Basch, Don Brown, Karen Furnweger, Elsa Reyna, Michael Risselada, Chuck & Joanne Ruifrok, Kathe & Adrian Walton, Steve Warnelis, and John Wheeler. The Building Manager of 5040-5060 Marine, Grace Donlin, graciously loaned us meeting space. Finally, special appreciation goes to Joe Trendl, who led the sustained effort and served as a dedicated representative of the community interests. Joe, you did us proud. [index]

Carmen Winona Neighbors Approve Latest Admiral Proposal, 9/20/06:
The following is an excerpt from an email sent by Joe Trendl on 9/21/06.
Neighbors:

The 51 week discussion with the Admiral is coming to a close. Many of you were in attendance at The Admiral on 9-13-06 to view the latest iteration of the proposed development. The neighborhood then met to discuss and vote on this latest proposal on Wednesday 9-20-06.

After much discussion, a vote was taken and the proposal passed affirmatively.

As a result, The Admiral will be an agenda item at the September 27, 2006 Zoning & Planning Committee meeting. All are welcome to attend.

At this meeting we will ask that our neighboring associations join with us in voting to pass this development proposal, so that it can continue through the remaining stages of the city’s zoning approval process.

It has been a very long process, not everyone was able to get all they wanted on either side and our neighbors on the north side of Winona will be demonstrably affected. It is our hope that over time, this new addition to our neighborhood will come to be held in as high a regard as other properties in the area. It will be a long demolition /construction process. There will be approximately 3 months of demolition, time-lined to begin in the Spring of 2007 and followed soon thereafter with some 20 or so months of construction.

The Admiral promises to work with us during this period and be as accommodating to us as is possible. I have attached 3 documents to this transmission. (ed.: These are viewable as links.)

  • A PDF of the Admiral proposals (design visuals) for all to see just what we are getting. (ed.: Note that "original" identifies the first design, "current" the second design, and "proposed" the third design. The attendees voted to approve the "proposed" design, and it is that which will go forward.)
  • A PDF of the questions/requests made by attendees of our 9-20-06 meeting
  • A PDF of the Admiral's response to these questions/requests.
Our working committee will remain intact and active in order to monitor the process and audit the various zoning meetings that will take place with the City Zoning, Lakefront Protection, and the PD review.
This has not been an easy journey and I want to thank everyone for all of the contributions made.

--Joseph R. Trendl, for the Working Committee of the Neighborhood Association [index]


Combatting Gangs: Minutes of the 48th Ward Public Safety Meeting:
Don Brown, President of the Carmen-Winona Block Club, forwarded the minutes of the 8/23/06 meeting of the Public Safety Committee. Paraphrasing:

Here are the minutes for the August 23, 2006 (3:00PM) meeting of the 48th Ward Public Safety Meeting regarding the 5000 Block of N. Winthrop. The meeting was held in the 48th ward office of Alderman Mary Ann Smith. Representatives from Uptown Community Organizations were invited to discuss the situation at Winona and Kenmore/Winthrop and to propose action items to address the problems. The Carmen Winona Block Club was one of the organizations asked to participate. Pat Bunetta, the block club representative, attended the meeting and prepared the minutes. It seems that strong and aggressive action has been taken by the police to address the immediate problems and that followup activity is also going in the right direction. If you have any questions or comments, please send e-mail to: donaldbashore@hotmail.com.

Here are the 8/23/06 Safety Committee minutes. (Thank you, Pat.) [index]

Chicago Tribune (8/19/06) Reports Drug Bust, Winona St. Vicinity:

2 drug markets closed down, police say

Published August 19, 2006

CHICAGO -- Chicago police said Friday they have shut down two separate open-air drug markets on the North and South Sides, resulting in charges against 34 people.

Police have made 26 street corner drug stings this year, officials said.

Last year, police broke up 53 open-air operations and charged 735 drug dealers.

This week on the North Side, officers said they took down a drug operation near Winona Street and Sheridan Road that involved members of the Black P Stones and Four Corner Hustlers street gangs.

The South Side operation, on the 6800 block of South May Street near an elementary school, a park and several churches, was controlled by the Gangster Disciples, police said.

"These were profitable drug markets that were a source of intimidation and violence in these neighborhoods," said Lt. Robert Cervenka.

"Removing them will have an immediate and positive impact on the surrounding areas."

Police in both investigations used surveillance and made undercover drug purchases to identify the individuals who were running the operations, officials said.

Copyright © 2006, Chicago Tribune

We are grateful for the police work that went into disrupting the gang activity taking place in a nearby Winona alley, recently reported by a neighbor. The CAPS meeting for Beat 2024 held on August 17 was attended by an unusually large group of people who came to express concern and to learn the status of the police response. In this case there appears to have been a dramatic break-through by the police. At the CAPS meeting, however, it was re-emphasized that the task of fighting crime requires ongoing citizen vigilance and cooperation. A principal that is stated over and over in the meetings is that no one should hesitate to call 911 when he or she sees what seems to be suspicious activity. Although the call may be made anonymously, try to supply as much description as possible. (Note that CAPS meetings are held on the 3rd Thursday of even-numbered months at 7:00PM in the Margate Park Field House, and they afford a valuable opportunity to discuss community concerns with the police.) [index]

A Neighbor's Report on Crime Outside of 1055 W. Winona St.:
Don Brown, President of the Carmen-Winona Block Club, emailed a message to the club that should be of concern to all of us in the neighborhood.

Block Club and Uptown Neighbors:

Please read the e-mail below. It is long but very informative and disturbing. It is an e-mail from an Argyle Winmore Block Club member. This block Club is west of Sheridan between Lawrance and Foster. They have been having "gang" problems for the last 9 months or so. The problem has at times spilled over to the east side of Sheridan Road over this past summer.

I ask that you attend the next caps meeting (ed.: see calendar) for our Beat 2024 and the beat the problem is occuring in.

Thank you,
Don Brown

Here is the text of our neighbor's letter, captured as a pdf document. This letter was posted on August 8, 2006. [index]

Admiral Pre-Development Traffic Impact Study:
Glenn Brichacek, CEO of The Admiral, recently forwarded to us part of a traffic impact study that was commissioned by the Admiral related to their proposed development plan. Our version of the document contains a summary of the results but not the raw data. --Joseph R. Trendl, for the Working Committee of the Neighborhood Association [index]

Update on the Admiral Development, 6/30/06:

Neighbors:

The Carmen-Winona Working Committee met with the principals of The Admiral at their invitation on Thursday, June 29 at 6PM. The meeting lasted some 2 hours or so.

As of this writing, we seem to be at an impasse. The alternative solutions presented to the company for its project have prohibitive economic issues. These costs exceed the current construction budget.

Taking the current structures and re-orienting them to afford our neighborhood some relief of the mass, seems problematic, reasons other than the wishes of Alderman Smith to stay away from Foster Avenue remain unclear.

The CEO explained that they were burning through the company’s cash reserves and need the new structure to survive. He then explained that at the price points for the new structure; it was unlikely that the company, with the new structure would be able to do much more than service its construction debt.

We asked about timing for the Zoning & Planning Committee process, and the answer was non-committal. So, we don’t as of this writing know whether it will be July or August.

We asked about having The Admiral’s principals, Alderman Smith and the working committee all meet together for an open discussion of alternatives and solutions and were told that they would have to digest all that was talked about at the meeting and then come back to us.

As a side note, I wrote a brief summary to the Ward office as asked. I also asked for any ideas or help resolve this current impasse. The response back from Greg Harris was that he will share the thought with Alderman Smith and get back to me.

So, all in all nothing has changed from our last meeting with the community. I will continue to keep all informed of any updates/changes as I get them.

We would like to wish all of our Carmen-Winona neighbors a happy and safe 4th of July.

--Joseph R. Trendl, for the Working Committee of the Neighborhood Association [index]

Response to Admiral Letter, 6/19/06: Joe Trendl, in an email message excerpted below, explains the rebuttal (pdf, rebuttal in red text) inserted into the Admiral's letter of June 9, 2006. The letter without inserts is at: unmodified Admiral letter (pdf). Joe states:

All:

The Working Committee of Carmen-Winona Neighborhood Association, charged with representing our community interests in The Admiral development project, received a letter from The Admiral on June 14, 2006 in response to our written stance notification, dated May 15, 2006.

We remain intent on keeping open all discussions with The Admiral and its principals; including also Alderman Smith, the 48th Ward Office as well as our neighboring associations and block clubs.

We wish to express our gratitude to Alderman Smith for inviting us to her office for a second meeting on June 5, 2006 to share with her, our community’s current Admiral stance.

Furthermore, we await communication by Mr. Brichacek, CEO of The Admiral; so that we may meet; our committee and his principals; to move discussions forward in a positive, forthright manner.

To be clear, we will summarize here, our community’s stance regarding the current plan / offering by The Admiral.

  • The height and mass of the project is too large for our neighborhood to absorb in its present design.
  • We feel that there should be a better, more thoughtful and useful utilization of The Admiral’s current property area on Foster Avenue.
  • We feel that the building mass as currently set upon the southern perimeter of the company’s property line will negatively impact our neighborhood by diminishing current light/ambient light and by creating new negative noise and traffic patterns for our neighbors as well as yet to be determined negative wind patterns.
  • The newly proposed façade materials do not appear to adhere to the original materials that at the very least seemed to be complementary to our current architecture.
  • We feel that all of Carmen-Winona (including The Admiral) must share of the pain of the project by having the height diminished, the configuration altered, or the design moved north and eastward to those property boundaries where the building can be better absorbed.
  • In its present form, the scale of the proposed buildings are simply not in keeping with the heights of the majority of the buildings in our neighborhood of Carmen-Winona.
Lastly, we felt compelled to rebut the Admiral’s response that was received on June 14th. It is presented as a Word attachment [ed.: changed to a pdf document] as well as the PDF of the letter in its original format.

While not wishing to engage in a tit-for-tat; there were, we felt, inconsistencies that had to be addressed as well as a mixture of old versus current statuses and statements. These needed to be brought forward and clarified.

We wish to keep our conversations in the present and use future talks to find ways to move the discussions forward in the best manner and best interests of our communities-Carmen-Winona and The Admiral.

The Working Committee of Carmen-Winona stands ready to meet and discuss options and thoughts with The Admiral and / or Alderman Smith at their respective requests.

Joe Trendl
[index]

Update on the Admiral Development, 6/12/06: Joe Trendl provides the following summary concerning the Admiral after a 6/5/06 meeting with the Alderman and her staff. [index]

Admiral Proposal Rejection Letter to Alderman, 5/16/06: At a community meeting held on May 10, 2006, there was strong agreement to reject the Admiral's development proposal in its current form. Our letter (PDF file) to Alderman Mary Ann Smith explains the reasons. [index]

Admiral News: Summary of Meeting with Alderman, 4/6/06: On April 6, 2006, the Admiral Working Group met with Alderman Smith and her staff assistant Marge Britton to discuss the Admiral development proposals and the community reaction to them. Here is the meeting summary by Joe Trendl. [index]

12/9/05: Letter to Alderman on the Proposed Admiral Development: We respectfully request a face-to-face meeting to discuss our opposition. Our researched position is based on arguments involving economics, historic-preservation, traffic, parking, the environment, zoning, and lakefront protection. The work involved in creating the position was substantial and we thank the individuals who contributed their time and insights. [index]

11/14/05: Block Club Submits Wishlist to Alderman: At the special meeting the alderman convenes for this purpose, our block club (along with other clubs in the 48th Ward) had an opportunity to submit a wish list. This event illustrates the importance the alderman places upon determining community priorities through discussion with community groups. [index]

Here are last year's requests as well.

11/1/05: Block Club Responds to Proposed Admiral Development: The Block Club has composed a letter to Alderman Mary Ann Smith (with a copy to Glenn Brichacek, President and CEO of The Admiral at the Lake) that provides feedback on the Admiral's development plan. Our response was shaped over the course of multiple meetings and relates to the initial plan that has been explained to us. [index]

Initiatives related to the Lakefront:

Uptown Chicago Commission Reports

Mail may be sent to the officers of the Block Club; view the "Contact Us" page.

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