The Jefferson Park Free Press
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March 6, 2006
Say
Good-by to Jefferson Park Before It Says Good-by to You?
The 5500 W. Edmunds
block is being transformed from a quiet residential neighborhood made up of an
entire block of single-family ranch homes, to a canyon of condominiums with
nary a blade of grass between them. This, not even two years after a severe
flood destroyed two brand new condos around the corner on Higgins Avenue.
Anyone that watches
public television knows that lawns, yards and open land help soak up excess
rainwater and that communities across the country are realizing this now and
are forcing builders to set aside green space not just for aesthetics but for
alleviating flooding.
Not so in Chicago
and in the 45th ward in particular. 45th Ward Alderman
Pat Levar is letting an entire block of sturdy ranch homes along with their
yards and front lawns dis-appear from the landscape. The Alderman finally held
a meeting, inviting some of the homeowners but it was already after one condo
was being built and another had received its permit to be built. Ald. Levar
claimed he was thinking of downzoning the block so that only
single-family homes could be built there. This is akin to closing the door
after the horse has left the barn, actually not even that, it’s more like
“thinking” about closing the door after the horse has left the barn.
Developers started
snapping up the homes on W. Edmunds because of their high-density zoning (R4).
Every one of the homes on the block except two, is either being developed into
condos or has recently been bought by a developer. One poor ranch home owner
now has a giant 4-unit condominium running nearly the entire length of the west
side of his property, and soon will have another one running almost the entire
length of the east side of his property. He can say good-by to the sun and his
vegetable garden, maybe he can grow mushrooms instead. Gone too are the young
children riding up and down the sidewalk with their parents and neighbors
chatting on the stoop. “Some people leave their neighborhood but in this case
the neighborhood left us,” said one resident. Another resident, while loading
the moving truck, after finally giving in to a developers large cash offer,
said, “don’t get me wrong, we received a fair price for our property, but we
remodeled this house from top to bottom, we intended to stay here, but many of
our neighbors are gone and our son has only one playmate left near here now, we
really feel like we were forced to move.”
And so another nice
family leaves Jefferson Park.
What will it take to
get 45th Ward Alderman Levar to stand up for 45th Ward
residents?
38th Ward
Alderman Tom Allen and 47th Ward Alderman Gene Schulter and several
other aldermen have down-zoned several residential neighborhoods in their wards
to RS2. Downzoning to RS2 would prevent developers from splitting lots and
squeezing in two buildings on a lot that used to hold just one home.
Large-scale
downzoning to RS2 will ensure that the character of our neighborhoods will
remain.
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VIEW CAMPAIGN
DISCLOSURES AT:
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(click on
“committees” and type in candidate’s last name)
VIEW THE NEW ZONING ORDINANCE GO TO: http://www.cityofchicago.org/zoning
VIEW WHEN THE ZONING COMMITTEE WILL MEET: http://www.chicityclerk.com/citycouncil/calendar.html
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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.
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