By Al Turco
Special to Inside
Fans of irony may applaud the fiery warning shot launched by the Commission on Chicago Landmarks (CCL) not long after the Commission placed the hot property of Wrigley Field on the clock.
The Tribune Company, owner of The Chicago Tribune, Wrigley Field and the Cubs, are willing to accept landmark status if they also get approval of their proposed expansion plans. With consent still as distant as a Cubs pennant, the CCL has refused to postpone debate further; a public hearing will be announced as soon as the CCL notifies the many interested parties. Meanwhile, Robert Levin consented to landmark status for his Assumption School building at 319 W. Erie St., but he wasn’t happy about the timing.
Assuming makes trouble for both sides
“My client has had a lot of heartache about this. Although lawyers are in the business of disputes, Mr. Levin cannot afford this dispute,” said Levin’s attorney Jack Guthman, summing up his client’s consent to landmark status for the Assumption School at the CCL’s Jan. 9 meeting. “Even a successful lawsuit would take time and money and could result in a loss of financing and disaster for the project before any resolution,” Guthman told the CCL. He did not question the historical significance of the building but impugned the process.
Assumption was the first Italian-speaking parochial school in the Midwest. The first American saint, Mother Cabrini, founded the school in 1899. Because of this historical significance and the integrity of the original architecture the CCL has designated the building a protected Chicago landmark. But Guthman advised the CCL that once an owner has performed due diligence to make sure no claims or protections are attached to a property, attained financing, paid architects, begun contract negotiations with tenants or condominium buyers, and filed for a building permit, “as Levin had done, the CCL should not then step in and begin the landmark process, as the CCL did with the Assumption School.”
Guthman said he first heard that the CCL was looking at the Assumption School only one month ago, and not from the Commission but from Ald. Burton Natarus (42nd). Levin bought the 319 W. Erie St. property in 2001 and had requested and received both a zoning change from the City Council and a special use OK from the Chicago Zoning Board of Appeals before filing for a building permit in August. Both the zoning change and the special use approvals passed through the Department of Planning and Development (DPD), the same department that oversees the Landmark Commission staff. But no one said a word to Levin or Guthman until December.
“There’s no rule saying when it’s too late to start the process,” said Pete Scales of the DPD. “There’s no authority for what they did. It contravenes the law,” Guthman said.
What’s done is done for Levin; he was not asked to make major changes from his plans, which will not alter the exterior appearance of the historic school building. But the timing of the landmark process may become a hot issue as the city’s effort to protect architectural history butts up against the rights of property owners.
City plays hardball
with the Cubs
The Tribune Company has held off the landmark process with a series of extensions, or tolling agreements, but the bell is about to toll.
The standard process for designating a Chicago building or neighborhood as a landmark includes consultation by CCL with the DPD, notification of the property owners, a public hearing to debate the matter with owners and abutters, a vote of the CCL, and the final, binding vote of the City Council. Property owners have 45 days and the option of a 120-day extension before they must say whether they consent to the landmark status. If the owners do not consent, the process still moves forward. Wrigley Field has been on the clock for more than two years.
The Tribune Company has fended off the landmark process, first trying to resolve conflicts with rooftop businesses and neighbors. The park owners had hoped to make everybody around them happy before the CCL figures out how to designate the area. But things have not gone smoothly in Wrigleyville, with neighbors writing angry letters to the local media and the Cubs suing the rooftop clubs.
Wrigleyville Neighbors member Pat Sammarco referred to the most recent attempt at compromise as a “scam.” Unhappy abutters could influence the scope of the landmark process and interfere with the Tribune Company’s park expansion plans. But, like it or not, it’s time for the Cubs to play ball. The waves made by the CCL, a nine-member board appointed by the mayor and chaired by Museum of Science and Industry President David Mosena, are stirring up property owners around Chicago. Whether the wave crests or crashes is the next big question on the shores of Lake Michigan.
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