By Alexis Maislen
Special to Inside
Condominium residents in the old teletype building at 2600 N. Southport Ave. are raising hell over a nearby building under construction down the street—which will block their view of the skyline when completed.
The story begins at the site of an abandoned building shell on the lot of 2549 N. Southport Ave. In 1998, a developer from Patanki Properties started this project. It was to be condominium units with retail space below. Back then the lot was zoned as a C1-1/R4 use—which meant that including the retail floor the other floors could not exceed a height over 38 feet. But, before the building was completed, the developer went bankrupt, leaving this building and others in the 32nd Ward abandoned.
Flash-forward to the present situation today—the city has granted a new builder a permit to complete the property. When neighbors in the teletype building last checked, the structure at 2549 well over exceeded the 38 feet (four floor plus retail) limit.
"The big issue here is the building is going higher than what they have a permit for," said Chad Mendell, a resident of 2600 N. Southport Ave. "Records in the city's building department show that as of June 1, 2003, this lot was zoned as a C1-1 with an R4 classification."
Mendell said that according to the zoning ordinance on the books the building's first floor must be 14 feet high and the remaining floors to the roof 24 feet high.
"Right now as it stands it's well over five stories high," he said.
The new permit the city granted builder George Barhames of Glenview in June allows for a five-story building with one floor of retail. However, left out of the permit is the lot's zoning requirements—standard on all permits. This means the builders could have asked the zoning department for an exception; Michael Hoskins in the department told Mendell an exception was not granted. They may have also appealed for a variance or had the lot re-zoned.
Mendell is sure the Zoning Board of Appeals did not grant the builder a variance. Usually a builder has to inform the community surrounding the area before one is given. And re-zoning cannot be done without sending out proper notification to the community, which was not done.
Barhames told Inside that his company has followed the permits granted by the city "since the beginning."
"We bought the building from the bank and are finishing what the other developer couldn't finish," he said. "We only want to make the neighborhood look real nice."
"It's an unfortunate situation," said Mendell. "The neighborhood can't do anything about it. As much as the building department does not want to see the essence of the neighborhood change, they would rather see one building higher than the rest over an abandoned building."
The Southport City Saloon had made many complaints about drug deals and vandalism on the site in the years when it was abandoned.
Ald. Ted Matlak (32nd) is not pleased with the monstrous building being erected in his ward. Matlak said that after the first builder went bankrupt he had changed the zoning in his ward to B2/R4 to ensure that future buildings would conform to the height of pre-existing structures.
"I am asking the building department to review this permit because it was reinstated under the old rules and to see if we can get the new builder to build under the current rules," said Matlak. "I would like a shorter building and if we can't get it legally than we are stuck." He added that all of Patanki's buildings are a mess and the city will most likely be dealing with many of them in court.
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