By Al Turco
Special to Inside
Lincoln Park neighbors are uncomfortable with the compromise finally struck between neighborhood leaders and Nicholas Gouletas’ American INVSCO development corporation. The condominium complex replacing the defunct Columbus Hospital, 2520 N. Lakeview Ave., will be less than half the size first envisioned by INVSCO in the spring of 2001. While some neighbors still oppose the project, others are upset that the neighborhood did not embrace a larger development earlier, and even those leaders who hammered out the compromise aren’t ready to shake hands.
Metropolitan Plan Commissioner Doris Holleb and Jack Swenson, Director of the Chicago Department of Planning and Development, moderated a community meeting at the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum in Lincoln Park on Oct. 2. Ald. Vi Daley (43rd) had requested the meeting.
“I promised the community that they’d have another opportunity to speak before the plan went forward,” Daley told Inside. INVSCO will bring its formal Planned Unit Development application for its 350 maximum unit high-rise and townhouse development before the Plan Commission at 1 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 17, in the City Council Chamber, 121 N. LaSalle St., second floor. The meeting is open to the public.
But on Oct. 2, the neighbors wanted to share their last words. “Can we have a referendum?” asked Judy O’Malley of 2500 N. Lakeview Ave. Swenson said this was not his area of expertise and left the question hanging. But several untangled legal sources agree that it would be difficult to convince the government to target one individual property owner and easy for the owner to challenge such action. Another neighbor, determined to go down with the ship in her backyard, shouted, “Why didn’t Vi Daley stop this?”
The Lincoln Park Improvement Task Force led by longtime 2626 N. Lakeview Ave. resident Jim Bidwell, a developer, has been in favor of the original, larger project since the group’s inception last year. They argue that the investment in the neighborhood would increase property values and infuse the area with more customers for local stores. The Task Force represents residents and local merchants, and Bidwell emphasizes that the group is not a mouthpiece for larger players or a fleeting ad hoc voice.
“Twelve of us wrote checks for this, and we received all kinds of in-kind services to set up our Web site [www.improvelincolnpark.org],” Bidwell told Inside. “We’re self-funded, independent, and we will be ongoing.” At the Oct. 2 meeting Bidwell spoke as “the voice of people who cannot attend condo association meetings,” urging that the project go forward as soon as possible to boost the local economy.
“I don’t think those few people speak for thousands,” Bidwell said last week about the condo association delegates to Diversey Harbor Lakeview Association (DHLA). “And they are not qualified to deal with zoning.”
Bidwell said the condo associations should stick to building affairs, like where to put the dumpsters, instead of usurping the authority of city experts. “We gave people an alternate voice,” Bidwell said. He couldn’t provide any membership figures yet, but said thousands of applications were stuffed in the bags of a local market.
Gene Fisher, executive director of DHLA, responded in an Oct. 1 letter to Inside: “Because the delegates to our association are elected leaders of its membership organizations, the people who decide policies are each accountable to the electorates in their respective buildings — in stark contrast to Mr. Bidwell’s group that has given no evidence that it is accountable to anyone.”
Marilyn Katz of N. Hampden Court supports Bidwell and the efforts of the Task Force, and she says more than 100 people have emailed her in agreement. She says she represents the silent majority of busy professionals — people who don’t have time to keep close tabs on their condo associations but would have spoken up to defend the INVSCO project if their elected boards had kept them in the loop.
The people who do attend condo association meetings have also found time to work with INVSCO and Daley throughout the summer to reach a compromise on the scope of the project. But how the project will be built is still under negotiation. These folks were sitting on the floor in the museum hallway before the Oct. 2 session, still debating the finer points, such as cupola or no cupola to hide mechanicals.
“We haven’t shaken INVSCO’s hands yet,” said Gale Klein, elected President of the decades-old Park West Community Association. She is waiting to see things in writing. Gene Fisher, Executive Director of the Diversey Harbor Lakeview Association, a board of people elected by the residents of 26 Lincoln Park condominium buildings, submitted a letter for the record on Oct. 2, asking that documentation of the size compromise and concerns about construction be included as 22 covenants in INVSCO’s Planned Unit Development (PUD) application. The concerns include issues such as hours of operation, containment of hazardous materials, site clean-up and insurance for nearby buildings. (See Page 12 for two letters about INVSCO issues.)
“Most of the requests are not unreasonable, but I’m not sure if they will be put in the Planned Development application,” Daley said in an interview last week. At the Oct. 2 meeting, INVSCO’s attorney, Ted Novak of Piper Rudnick, said that city ordinances are in place as well as state and federal laws to control the construction process.
“We will satisfy and exceed these requirements,” Novak said. “And we will work with your representatives.” Novak did not directly address the Diversey Harbor / Park West fear that if INVSCO were to go bankrupt, the compromise could go out the window as creditors converged. And he did not discuss the many points of concern where the letter asked for concessions beyond legal requirements. But he did give an answer of sorts to all these questions, including one posed above: “Why was this not stopped” vs. Property Rights. Park West’s legal expert, attorney Don Glickman, also looked at the big picture.
“We endorse this compromise but hope it doesn’t set a precedent,” Glickman said. “The city needs to establish a system so buildings will not be built out of scale with neighborhoods.” He thinks the 442-foot center tower is too big but agrees that, under the law, the neighbors did all they could to limit the project’s size. Three towers are proposed with maximum heights of 235’ for the south tower, 442’ for the center tower and 337’ for the north tower, all along N. Lakeview Ave. on the old hospital footprint but set back slightly from the property line.
Ten to 12 townhouses with a maximum height of 45’ will sit on the hospital property on W. Deming Pl. and W. St. James Pl., 15’ back from the property line. The site will include a maximum of 325 units and 700 parking spaces in a total development of 772,000 sq. ft. The Cabrini Shrine will be left intact, and the open space will be landscaped. For more details check the plans on Alderman Daley’s Web site at chicago43rd.org.
Neighbors at the Oct. 2 meeting left no doubt that the vocal majority of Lincoln Park is not happy with the INVSCO proposal, cheering for people attacking the project and snickering at supporters. Several hundred people filled the room. Twenty-five citizens addressed the crowd; six voiced support, the other 19 still had concerns.
Supporters spoke of increased property values and a boon for local businesses, and opponents asked about things like parking and the environment. Novak acknowledged traffic problems in Lincoln Park, where he also lives. Even Holleb took off her moderator’s hat for a moment to concur. But Novak said traffic from the condo complex will impact the neighborhood less than the hospital had, grounding his statement in three separate traffic studies, one funded by DHLA.
Project Executive Kevork Derderian of Continental Offices Ltd. refused to turn over an environmental report on Oct. 2, although this report will be before the Plan Commission on Oct. 17. A tangential request to include affordable housing units was rejected. This has been mentioned in the past but was never a central component to any negotiations. “This is a market rate development,” Novak said. “It’s achievable but not ‘affordable.’”
Harry Chandler, a 2500 N. Lakeview Ave. neighbor in a wheelchair, asked about accessibility. Derderian said INVSCO would meet all legal requirements. “We’ll be watching,” Chandler said.
A sphere of perspectives surrounds every question put to a community. Diverse voices are often cacophonous, but the industrial sounds of debate can be quite constructive. “I think we have a better project for everyone’s effort,” Novak said. But when few discuss the fate of many, the issue of who represents whom must be added to the list of controversies.
The Columbus Hospital project was first proposed in the spring of 2001. DHLA and Park West Neighbors Association (PWNA) spent months negotiating with the city and the developer. There have been condo board elections in the interim. The Lincoln Park Improvement Task Force (LPITF) was formed this summer, obviously too late to play a major role with Columbus Hospital redevelopment. But Bidwell says his group will play a leadership role in the future of Lincoln Park.
Residents of Lincoln Park may or may not enjoy watching the game of leadership Twister contorting atop Mount Who Knows Best. Katz was irked by PWNA’s recent support of a Best Buy over a Whole Foods on N. Clark St. The Park West group opposed Whole Foods because of a standing agreement with local grocers not to let a big chain market set up shop in the neighborhood. Ironically, one of the reasons Bidwell formed his group was to give local business owners a voice.
How about residents near Clark St.? Katz is thinking of forming a block committee. Residents with time and interest should attend the Plan Commission hearing on Oct. 17. Otherwise, call any of several neighborhood leaders. If the Plan Commission approves the project, it’s on to the City Council for a final stamp - ah, vote. |
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