Based on urban planning concerns that were not addressed, and the overwhelming negative feedback my office received from the Ranch Triangle Association and the immediate neighbors, I do not support this development proposal at 1840 N Marcey as is.
After the area was redistricted into the 32nd Ward last year, we held the first community meeting and took significant input from neighbors and the community group RANCH Triangle. Neighbors pointed out the need for a compromise on the project including a reduction in height, parking and adding affordable units onsite.
The project asks for all the benefits of a Transit Oriented Development with huge bonuses but fails to meet the TOD parking requirements. The compromise was to remove one story from 26 down to 25 but add more units, and reduce some of the parking. Despite the slight reduction in the number of off-street parking spaces from 360, the current plan still calls for a parking garage with 275 spaces. This level of off-street parking guarantees significant increases in traffic congestion in an area already struggling with gridlock. Transit-Oriented Developments (TODs) are supposed to be approved with no parking or far less than what this proposal demands. Additionally, the developer wanted to send the affordable units off site into some other neighborhoods, not building them on their development, which often means the affordable units are never built.
This area is also a buffer area per the North Branch Framework Plan because it assumes that the nearly 600-foot-tall high rises contemplated for Lincoln Yards have been built and the transportation infrastructure is in place to support them.
That transportation infrastructure, including a transit way, expanded CTA bus service, bike routes, and bridge improvements have not been started. Merely calling for the introduction of new CTA service on Clybourn won’t work, and is highly unlikely given the state of the CTA. If you recall, many of these promises were made during the process of approving Lincoln Yards for Sterling Bay starting back in 2016. We continue to work with everyone including Sterling Bay, to make sure that something more in Lincoln Yards is developed so it does not remain as is.
Our role as leaders is to engage in the work of reaching an effective compromise between the preferences of developers, the financial feasibility of projects, and the concerns of the community. The City also supported it prior to any public input.
The community proposal asked for at least an eight-story residential building with up to 400 units, including 20% affordable units on site, and a reduced demand on vehicles. This would have still allowed for a mixed use development in the area yet would have maintained some connection to and respected the context and character of the surrounding neighborhood. The response was that this was completely unacceptable because the developer was unwilling to accept any changes.
My role as Alderman was to work toward a compromise between the community and developers and create a balanced development. We will continue to do that. Thank you to the neighbors and RANCH Triangle for their continued efforts to build an inclusive, pedestrian and bike friendly, mixed-use neighborhood that has not said no to development, but has continually asked for balanced development that includes affordable housing. Finally, while we have not had any interaction with the Mayor on this development, he did make a statement that was forwarded to us: What my Administration is committed to doing is to bring real economic development across the city. Now again, the anti-business, quite frankly, the anti-black and brown policies that have created so much harm in the city, that day is over, that's why we're working hard to bring real economic development to the people. What I have committed myself to doing and what I've demonstrated is I work with people. I need people to calm down and relax, just relax. We're having conversations. Because that's how you build a better, stronger, safer Chicago. This is not some contentious, fake spat or rift between my presentation and others. This is about having a real conversation about how we have the vibrancy in this city so that we can recover. The conversations aren't going and look, there are people who may not have fully embraced our vision for a better or stronger safer Chicago. We're going to continue to organize people so that they understand the full value of what it means to invest in all our communities.
Addendum
As we are facing a significant property tax increase for our homeowners in the proposed budget, it is important to highlight the developer tax reduction for Marcey.This property tax break will reduce their property taxes by about $44.7 million that will be shifted to other property owners.
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