By Ed Lowe
Senior Writer
It’s been a well kept Elston Ave. secret until now, when construction equipment has begun to operate. What was once a wasteland is beginning to show signs of life and redevelopment between Fullerton and Armitage avenues. Bulldozers and cranes are now on the site once occupied by a DuPont Corp. factory. One of the problems with the site in the 2200 block of N. Elston Ave. is that it required remediation to meet environmental standards. DuPont was unwilling to sell the property without assurances that it would be cleaned up because, left untouched, it would be a potential liability for another 100 years. Now, with developer Warren Baker in charge, the remediation work is almost finished.
According to Illinois Environmental Protection Administration (IEPA) spokesperson Maggie Carson, Baker Development Corp., Baker’s corporate entity, has submitted the property to a voluntary state remediation plan. "The work will be overseen by the IEPA and, when completed, the developer will receive a ‘no further remediation’ letter indicating that they have met all appropriate IEPA standards. This letter will help the developer with lending agreements and with future purchasers. The property on Elston Ave. was enrolled in this program in December of 2002," said Carson. The EPA’s project manager expects to receive a formal "remedial action plan" soon.
The internationally known engineering firm of Montgomery, Watts and Harza handled earlier remediation work dealing with the removal of underground tanks. Engineer Robert Suda was in charge of that aspect of the project. The remaining remediation work is the elimination of PCB contaminants from the soil. Skimming off several inches of topsoil from the land and replacing it with uncontaminated fill will accomplish this. Suda confirmed that the principal contaminant on the property was the carcinogenic chemical, PCB.
Baker assured Inside that the remediation work, begun in October, would be completed within the next 30 days and will meet EPA standards. According to Federal EPA spokesperson, Mick Hans, those EPA standards require the removal of the contaminants as well as their replacement with appropriate fill. Simply blacktopping over the site would not be a viable solution to the contamination of the subsoil.
A section of the land at the south end of the lot has already been graded with heavy gravel. This will provide access to Armitage Ave. and will serve as an entry point for traffic. Additional curb cuts will be allowed on Elston Ave. to permit motorists to enter the parking lot and the adjacent stores.
When all the work is completed and the stores are opened, the advantage to the neighborhood will be the installation of two major retailers in an area that has been marked only by chain link fencing and urban prairie. According to Baker, whose earlier developments have been primarily new residential properties at 2120 Lincoln Park West and a loft rehabbing at 1156 W. Armitage Ave., the new development on 11 acres will hold a Best Buy Store and a large Kohl's installation. Ald. Ted Matlak (32nd) told Inside that this would be the first urban Kohl’s store in the country. The Best Buy facility will occupy 45,000 square feet of space and the huge Kohl’s will use 130,000 square feet of floor space. This leaves room for a small outbuilding that could be occupied by a bank or small retailer.
Matlak said he felt that the Best Buy store would relieve some of the pressure on the chain's North Ave. facility, which is always crowded and for which parking is seldom available. This new store will ease problems at the North Ave. store, which will remain open.
"This [was] a site vacant for 20 years and has been a blight on the neighborhood presenting all sorts of environmental problems,” said Baker. “Now it will be back on the tax rolls, it will generate sales tax revenues and will provide real estate tax money to fund a Tax Increment Financing (TIF) District program that will improve the infrastructure. It will clean up an eyesore. And it will create an economic boost for the area."
Baker estimates that the property will be ready to open next summer. What had been a blight will be turned into an attractive development and will, on its own, provide at least $8 million in additional funds over the life of the TIF district to be used by the city for the infrastructure improvements.
The entire property is a part of a TIF. Ald. Matlak said increased revenues from the project would be applied to other area infrastructure improvements, especially revisions of the intersection of Elston and Fullerton avenues and the three-way intersection at Ashland, Elston and Damen avenues.
The Alderman told Inside that plans have been drawn that would provide for construction of a tunnel under Elston Ave. at Fullerton Ave. The cost would be in the $20 million range and will require federal funds for completion. At Damen and Elston avenue, two streets would be merged and traffic would be rerouted; this would make it possible to reduce the number of traffic light cycles from three to two, thereby making transit through this intersection quicker and less dangerous.
Matlak said that DuPont had indicated that it didn’t want to remediate the site but would rather sell it to someone who would do it for them. The land could have remained vacant for 100 years before the contaminants degraded to the extent that the land could again be used. This was unacceptable to both the Alderman and to the City’s Environmental Protection Agency; they encouraged DuPont to sell the land and to provide enough incentives to make the sale practical to a buyer.
According to Matlak, several alternative solutions to the site were considered and rejected. For example, it was thought that the site would be appropriate for an automobile dealership. But because of certain geographical restrictions on auto franchisees, none were able to get permission to build on that location.
At another time, there was a request to build a store for the large furniture retailer IKEA. This proved impractical because of the infrastructure limitations and the lack of an access to the site from the immediate west. Ald. Matlak persevered in his efforts until Baker stepped forward with the viable plan that’s now underway.
One of the problems in the area is the unique zoning arrangement along Elston Ave. The entire district north of Fullerton Ave. is zoned for commercial use and represents no problems. The area south of Cortland St. is a part of a Planned Manufacturing District. The Alderman indicated that rezoning this area could cost the city a large number of manufacturing jobs and would not be an acceptable solution.
Thus, this new development occupies a sort of no-man's-land in the middle of these two zones. Although there are some retail establishments within this planned manufacturing district, their existence is allowed because of certain exceptions permitted under the zoning ordinance. For example, the Wine Discount Warehouse is considered a warehouse and thus an appropriate industrial use. Likewise, the McGrath Lexus is considered an auto repair facility and therefore qualifies as conforming to the zoning.
The problem with redevelopment of Elston Avenue, in the alderman's view, goes back to the 1950s and the building of the Kennedy Expressway which bisected an old established ethnic neighborhood. The east edge of that neighborhood was Elston Ave., cut off from its roots and only now beginning to find its own identity. This is especially true because of the regentrification of nearby Clybourn Ave. which parallels Elston Ave. through much of the area under redevelopment.
Because of different zoning requirements, if the growth of the Clybourn corridor continues to gobble up more manufacturing plants and converts them into retail establishments, there will be no place to go except to the Elston Ave. sites which have been underused for decades.
Ald. Matlak told Inside that he has had discussions with CTA Chairman Frank Kreusi to encourage the CTA to rethink its bus routing and to make both Clybourn and Elston avenues available to CTA transit riders. Since there is neither bus nor elevated line transit available to customers of retailers along Elston, a large segment of the Chicago market is being underserved by the CTA. (Ald. Matlak has agreed to an interview at a later date to discuss some of his ideas for the regentrification of areas in the 32nd Ward and their redevelopment into uses more appropriate to the 21st Century.) "We want to take 19th Century urban planning and bring it into the 21st Century for the people living in Chicago today,” said Matlak.
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