Chicago's Landmark Commission and Ald. Vi Daley (43rd) were back before nearly 60 Lincoln Parkers Monday night at St. Theresa's Church, 1037 W. Armitage Ave., all representing community groups with an interest in the proposed new Landmark District at Halsted St. and Armitage Ave.
The city was trying to sell the Landmark concept to representatives from four neighborhood groups with varying interests in the plan.
Affected property owners were not invited to Monday's meeting but did attend a May 20 meeting with these same city officials. That highly skeptical audience of nearly 80 people, of which more than 50 were affected property owners, met at the Old Town School of Folk Music, 909 W. Armitage Ave., with many still smitten by their being the last to know this action was even being undertaken. In a straw poll taken at the end of the meeting of those owners in attendance not one property owner voted in favor of the proposed Landmark designation.
Presently not one property owner in the affected area has come forward publicly as being in favor of the proposed designation. In the view of many of the property owners, the Landmark initiative appears to be driven primarily by one retail tenant on Armitage Ave. and members of two adjoining residential associations, without the advice or consent of any of the affected property owners prior to the city's undertaking this initiative. All factions universally blame two recent projects on the 800 block of Armitage Ave. for the urgency of this initiative: one a retail build-out for an international clothier undertaken by renegade developer Fred Lasko, and another mixed-use project by realty firm Sussex & Reilley.
The proposed designation would affect 145 building roughly located on Halsted St. from Armitage Ave. to Webster St. and on Armitage Ave. from Halsted St. to Racine Ave. It is primarily a commercial district with some residential properties included.
The property owners held little hope that their votes meant anything as the Chicago's Landmark Commission can force Landmark Designation on the community even without the consent of the property owners.
Many of those with property in the proposed district feel the real risk to significant real estate lies with the escalating pace of tear-downs of historic properties along residential streets in the vicinity of the district. "If this efforts is the result of an interconnect between residents, commercial property owners and merchants of this community, then why are we not including adjacent residential blocks in this plan?" asked Tom Ward of the Lincoln Park Chamber of Commerce at Monday's meeting. Daley responded that some properties were going to be included in the future and that some blocks were already being considered.
Area property owners did hear a presentation at the May 20 meeting by Richard Roddewig, a real estate consultant for Clarion Associates, Inc., who is familiar with landmark districts and their effect on property values. During his 20-minute presentation Roddewig tried to ease the property owner's concerns over the potential loss of property values, bureaucratic oversight, trouble making repairs to buildings and increased costs associated with the designation.
Roddewig then fielded questions from the highly skeptical audience who asked, among other things, for examples of similar districts in Chicago which have been subject to the same designation. He suggested the Old Town and Mid North Landmark Districts in Lincoln Park, but attendees pointed out that those districts are primarily residential in nature. "There's some conflict with what we've heard from our consultants and what you're saying," said Daniel O'Donnell, who owns five properties in the proposed area. "You're giving us general statements and we want specifics."
At Monday's meeting before representatives from the Lincoln Park Chamber of Commerce, Armitage Ave. Merchants, Ranch Triangle and Sheffield Neighbors associations, city officials added that no economic impact study has been undertaken for this proposal and that one is not required or planned. A sincere effort was made by the representatives of the residential associations to comprehend the issues pro and con on the designation and the lively debate lasted for two hours.
Daley has scheduled another community meeting on Thursday, June 20, 7:30 p.m., at DePaul University's Schmidt Academic Center, 2350 N. Kenmore Ave., at which the community will again be given the opportunity to comment on the proposal.
One property owner noted at the May 20 meeting that in the city's official Landmark District handout it stated that there is "no definitive answer" regarding the effect on commercial property values. Roddewig said he was unaware if any study existed of Landmark Designation's affect over a commercial area such as the one in consideration. He did point to studies recently completed in Denver where property values in a landmark district there continued to grow at similar rates as before the designation. "I don't understand your concern over landmark designation," added Roddewig.
"I've looked into the benefits of Landmark Designation and I don't see how they help my family or business," said Tim Glascott of Glascott and Associates, who did an historic rehab on the Yondorf building at North Ave. and Halsted St. "I've taken great care to renovate these buildings and the project was much more expensive than it would have been otherwise due to its designation."
Most property owners at the May 20 meeting minimized the value of the tax incentives offered under the designation. "We couldn't use the tax breaks for that project - we weren't big enough," said Glascott of the Yondorf Hall project. "But it was very cumbersome dealing with the designation. Plus many of these buildings in the proposed area have already undergone historic rehabs and therefore we can't take advantage of the tax breaks available for rehabbing the properties," he said.
"Ninety percent of the current properties in this area will never be torn down as current zoning will not allow the same density to be built, but this designation could stop the 10 percent of the buildings which should be torn town from being replaced," said Glascott.
The property owners are now being notified by registered mail by the city seeking their consent over the proposed designation, which, based on those sentiments expressed at both meetings, seems unlikely.
In the meantime the owners continue to organize to form their own community review board which could serve the same purpose as that of the Landmark Designation without another layer of city bureaucracy or the loss of their property rights. As neighbors struggle to deal with the issues before them, the battle lines appear to be forming for a protracted fight which may in the end force the alderman to choose between area residents [read voters] and long time commercial property owners who have only ever wanted the best for their properties and tenants, and until now have generally been fond of and strong supporters of Ald. Daley..
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