The Jefferson Park Free Press
or “e” mail
us at: admin@jeffersonparkfreepress.com
Due to technical difficulties the Jefferson Park Free
Press web site www.jeffersonparkfreepress.com was temporarily out of service and no December ‘05
issue was printed or put online. We are glad to say that we are back online and
will have a full issue in February.
Sun-Times’ Abdon M. Pallasch tells us that the City
has thrown in the towel in their attempt to take Don Zordani’s “Sportif Bike
Importers” store at 5225 W. Lawrence Ave.
You can find Monday’s January 30, 2006 article at the
Chicago Sun-Times website www.suntimes.com under “archives.” The article was under “Metro” on
page 11 of the Late Sports Final edition under the heading: “Bike shop
owner wins fight against city.”
View Property by PIN Number or Address on the web: http://www.cookcountyassessor.com/filings/SearchFlat/search.asp
Click on the camera icon for a picture of the property
too!
VIEW WHEN THE ZONING COMMITTEE WILL MEET: http://www.chicityclerk.com/citycouncil/calendar.html(You still must call the Zoning Committee chair Ald.
Banks’ office at (312) 744-6857 to find out what is on the agenda until a week
before the meeting when it is available online)
VIEW THE NEW ZONING ORDINANCE, GO TO: http://w28.cityofchicago.org/website/zoning/
Send us an “e”mail at: admin@jeffersonparkfreepress.com
; and we will “e”mail you back, to tell you when the
next issue is online!
For our last issue, click on, or copy and paste:
http://www.jeffersonparkfreepress.com/november05index.html
The
Cheat Sheet
It’s All About The Dash
(-) (edited from our
February’05 issue)
As the number following the
dash goes up so does the density. For example a “- 1” requires a minimum of
2,500 square ft. of lot area for every unit, a “-1.5” allows 1,350 square feet
of lot area per unit, “- 2” allows only
1000 sq. ft. of lot area per unit and a
“-3” allows for even greater density requiring only 400 square feet per
unit. So for example if you had 29,800 sq. ft. of land and you were zoned
B2-3 you could build 74 condos! If the property was zoned B2-2 you would be
allowed 29 condos, B2-1.5 would allow for 22 condos and if zoned B2-1, you
could only build 11 condos.
That number after the dash
makes a big difference. Now imagine
that you bought a property zoned B3-1 but you were able to get it rezoned to
B2-3, that “dash three” could make your property worth a lot lot more. Why
should the Alderman and the City give away that zoning? What is the community
getting in return for this extreme density? What about the impact on the
schools, traffic congestion, flooding and quality of life in general? Why would
Alderman Levar want to diminish the quality of life just to increase a
developer’s profits? If a developer bought the property as zoned let him
build as zoned. Once the zoning change is allowed, a precedent will have been
set and the City will have a very difficult time refusing, if it can refuse at
all, future requests for up-zoning on the remaining parcels of that block.
Example: Zoning
classification for B2-__ Example: 29,800 sq. ft lot
Dash 1 : 2,500 sq. ft.
minimum lot area per unit allows approx. 11 condos
Dash 1.5
: 1,350 sq. ft. minimum lot
area per unit allows approx. 22 condos
Dash 2
: 1,000 sq. ft. minimum lot
area per unit allows approx. 29 condos
Dash 3
: 400 sq. ft. minimum lot
area per unit allows approx. 74 condos
The same applies for residential zoning. The density
issue especially comes into play with older homes on double lots (50 x 125),
which have 6,250 square feet or more. This type property has become attractive
to developers because they can be torn down and replaced with two homes. The
increased density affects not just the character of the neighborhood but also
parking, school overcrowding and flooding (as green space that acted as a
watershed is reduced).
Leaving a home on a double lot under R3 zoning or
greater is like leaving a freshly baked pie on the window sill with the aroma
wafting under the noses of developers. Down-zoning to “current use” such as R2
would stop the destruction of homes existing on double-lots. Note the
chart below.
RS 1 :
6,250 sq. ft. minimum lot area required per unit allows 1 unit on a double lot
RS 2 :
5,000 sq. ft. minimum lot area required per unit allows 1 unit on a double lot
RS 3 : 2,500 sq. ft.
minimum lot area required per unit
*allows 2.5 units on a double
lot
RT 3.5 :
1,250 sq. ft. minimum lot area required per unit *allows 5 units on a double lot
RT 4 :
1,000 sq. ft. minimum lot area required per unit *allows 6 units on a double lot
* A variance, or a slightly larger
lot may allow for an extra unit.