Ward Zoning and Planning Committee Meeting: 5/30/07

Alderman Smith began the meeting by introducing Mike Volini, our former Committeeman of 17 years, as the new Chair for the Z&P meetings. She continued with the following items:

• The City has a new service to track gasoline prices. To locate the cheapest gas price or to report on gas pricing, please phone 312-742-4GAS or alternatively access the internet site: http://www.chicagogasprices.com.
• City Vehicle stickers go on sale June 1, 2007 and are available for purchase at the 48th Ward Office on June 7 and June 21 from the hours of 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
• For free city activities at Millennium Park this summer, see the website http://www.millenniumpark.org/.
• The Uptown Theater has 2 companies looking at it and there will be more news on this matter as it develops.
• Conrad Suerth, Superintendent of 48th Ward Streets and Sanitation, was rated tops in the city for performance.
• MAS will be meeting the week of June 4 considering the Edgewater Library. The idea now is to keep it where it is, but enlarge it.
• The Cedar Play Lot redevelopment has been completed.
• MAS repeated an item from earlier WZPC meeting that a $2 million Senior Center will be going into the Armory
• McCutcheon School has no library or internal recreation space and is still being inspected by architects in order to develop a plan to bring it up to proper standards.
• There has been $1 million set aside for Senn H.S. to build a state of the art auditorium. MAS has challenged the school district to do more with Senn.
• SSA cameras are now set up and live underneath the Thorndale viaduct, monitoring vehicle and foot traffic in each direction.
• MAS received a $50,000 grant from a private individual to use for the building of a park on the north end of Sheridan. She is looking at 6151 N. Sheridan as the site.
• There is a fight in the Illinois House regarding the use of Red Light Cameras and this could cripple the effort to install these devices. More information will be supplied as it becomes available.

Doug Fraser, Chief of Staff, then spoke of the TIF proposal for the 48th Ward. Information on this TIF can be accessed through the 48th ward website. Questions (via email) are encouraged, and the questions and answers will be posted on the website, beginning June 1, 2007. One of the initial ideas for the use of these TIF funds is to help Heartland Alliance purchase and rehab the Hollywood House (Northwest corner of Hollywood & Sheridan). It is now owned by the Hellenic Foundation. The goal is to keep the Hollywood House from being sold publicly to a developer. Heartland’s intent is to keep it as a moderate to low income retirement residence.

Some other suggested uses for the TIF funds are: to calm traffic at Bryn Mawr & Sheridan, to do streetscapes, and possibly to upgrade McCutcheon School. The TIF should raise $75 million over the next 23 years. Look to the 48th ward website for public discussions on this matter during the month of June. The matter will be addressed and voted on at the June Z&P meeting. Please send me all of your thoughts and questions over the next few weeks.

The first item to be addressed was the Bed & Breakfast Inn on Early which requested a re-zoning in order to resume operations. The current zoning is RT-3.5, formerly RT-4. RT-4 allowed for the operation of the B&B; RT-3.5 does not. A vote was taken whether to roll back to the original zoning and it was approved unanimously.

The 2nd item considered involved the building at 5928 N Ridge (the 3 story red-awning, triangular building on the northeast corner of Ridge and Clark). There is a need to rezone the property from C1-2 to B3-5, in order for the owner to gut the building and to add 2 new floors on top of the structure. The intent is to have the current count of 48 apartment units increased to 64, with commercial space at the base and parking underneath. ECC though it a great addition. EDC had some concerns as did Edgewater Historical Society. Finally after much discussion there was a motion (noted as a friendly motion) to accept the initial concept subject to a hard vote on the final changes and modifications. The motion was seconded and the vote was 24 in favor, 1 opposed and 4 abstentions. As this was out of our area and it wasn’t clear that all the pieces were finalized, Carmen-Winona abstained.