By Adam Harrington
Special to Inside
Reservations about a new zoning council proposed last week by Ald. Tom Tunney (44th), and complaints about the city's plans for revamping Belmont Harbor, dominated the concerns of members of the South East Lake View Neighbors Association (SELVN) at a meeting May 5. SELVN members discussed these issues at the Wellington Ave. Church, 615 W. Wellington Ave.
At the same church April 28, Tunney announced the creation of the 44th Ward Community Directed Development Council, which would bring together 21 community and business groups to send recommendations to the alderman's office on zoning issues. SELVN member Gary Gray said the council may take a significant amount of power away from smaller neighborhood organizations.
"For the last 20 years, zoning decisions have been made by neighborhood groups in conjunction with some business groups at times. Say SELVN has a proposal to build an eight to ten story building at Surf and Broadway—we'd have one or two meetings, and everyone at those meetings would have a voice in the decision," Gray said. "[With the new council,] SELVN can have 20,000 meetings, and what would happen is that this recommendation would go to a group of 20 people, and they would make the decisions. We could scream all we wanted to, and it would not have an effect on it."
Blaine Roberts, Tunney's director of community outreach, said zoning decisions with an effect on a limited area of the ward would continue to be primarily in the hands of smaller neighborhood groups. "If there is a specific recommendation in a given area, most [council members] would refer to the local organizations for the decisions," he said.
SELVN members voted to elect a delegate to the council at a later time. SELVN president Bob Clarke said the organization would need to investigate further to determine if the council would be useful. "We will have to find what kind of ground rules this proposal creates on purely local issues," Clarke said. "If we find this body is overruling decisions and making it hard for us to exist, then we can withdraw."
Meanwhile, SELVN members expressed concern about the redevelopment of the parkland near Belmont Harbor. With bulldozers already meeting the Belmont seawall, Clarke reported that the city plans to extend the limestone "toe berms" submerged in the lake from 125 feet to 170 feet.
However, residents largely viewed proposals for the harbor green space near the seawall as an eyesore. The plan calls for moving many of the boats from anchors in the water to needle shaped docks along the shore, and building a new parking lot for boat owners, such as already exists between Diversey and Fullerton parkways.
"At Diversey, you can only use that public lot if you have a boat; that is what they want to do at Belmont. They want to put 20 parking places in addition to a road that cuts into the green space of our Lincoln Park," Clarke said. "Lincoln Park is scandalously overpaved. We don't need more parking to accommodate boaters; we need less parking."
Residents of nearby buildings voiced outrage at their lack of notice on the proposal. "I never heard about this," said Lake View resident Lily Venson. "I think this is going to be an ugly thing, and I think we have to rise up and be angry about it."
Roberts said there were many positive aspects to the plan, and that Tunney's office would give residents ample opportunity to discuss their concerns. "There will be more public access. There will be restrooms as well," Roberts said. "No plan is perfect."
Tunney has scheduled a meeting today, May 7, at 6:30 p.m. at Ann Sather's restaurant, 929 W. Belmont Ave., to discuss concerns about the Belmont Harbor redesign. For more information, call Tunney's office at (773) 525-6034.
(See related story page 9 about the April 28 meeting to announce the creation of the 44th Ward Community Directed Development Council.)
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