Ald. Vi Daley (43rd) testified before the city council committee on zoning last week in favor of an ordinance to rezone a section of the lakefront ward from an R7 to an R6 designation. The change would limit the maximum square footage and number of units allowed on the site of the shuttered Columbus Hospital.
The subject area covers Lakeview Ave. from Roslyn Pl. to Wrightwood Ave., and Pine Grove Ave. from Wrightwood to Diversey avenues. The area covers Columbus Hospital, 2520 N. Lakeview Ave., which recently ceased operations and is under contract for sale to American Invsco. American Invesco has proposed a 400-unit residential development which was shot down by the commuity in a meeting earlier this summer.
Ald. Daley testified that this rezoning was part of a concerted effort that began in 1986 by the Park West Community Association and the city to rezone most of the neighborhood in order to control the scale and density of new construction. “For some time we’ve been working with Park West and the city to review the zoning in that area. This was one of the last sections of R7 in Park West, so I introduced the change to R6.”
In her testimony Ald. Daley indicated that she was working with the city to draft legislation introducing height limitations for the R6 zoning. Daley stated, “I’ve been a vocal advocate of introducing height limits in our zoning code. I am working with the department of planning and the Mayor’s Zoning Reform Commission to introduce an appropriate height limit for the R6.”
“This decision to downzone the property will negatively impact our project, of which we’ve been in discussions with the community and city since May,” said Ted Novak, an attorney representing American Invesco. “We were not expecting the alderman to push for this and had held off putting in an application when the city asked us not to. Since May we continued to work with the city and made additional proposals but we were not expecting this. We are now going to move full speed ahead and expect to be putting in an application for our project by the end of the month,” he said.
Ald. Daley did not know if the city council would approve a height ordinance in time to impact the Invsco proposal, but she added, “I would like to make clear that establishing a suitable height limit will be one of the foremost considerations in reviewing any planned development in this area. It is extremely important to me as the community’s representative that we retain the character of our neighborhood and not become overburdened by further increases in density or overshadowed by large-scale construction.”
The committee on zoning voted to approve the zoning change and will recommend passage to the city council at its Oct. 31 meeting.
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