[Chicago Shawn]

The meeting went extremly well, with a presentation that showed the building is well within existing zoning for the site:

Allowed under existing DX-12 Zoning.....Proposed
376 units total..........................................376 Residential units

Height on Michigan Avenue- 425 feet ...........120 feet total, Current YWCA is 83

Height on Wabash- Unlimited ......................866' total for the tower

207 Parking Spaces minimum.......................404 spaces,
None required for commercial space............. plus 75 underground spaces

5 loading births required .........................6 planned, one large enough to hold a semi trailor



The second through 10th floors will form a bridge over the existing alley, which is a private alley owned by adjacent landowners. The alley will remian open to through traffic even though it does not have to be.

There will be a lush roof garden at the 11th floor setback. It will serve as the ammenity deck for residents and have an indoor and out door pool.

The tower will only have 8,000 square foot floor plates, with only 6 units per floor, which drops to 5, 4, 3, and 2 units per floor as you ascend up the tower. The slender tower will block less light and views, than wat could be put there as of right.

The tower will be setback on 9th Street to open up western views for residents of 888 South Michigan.

The crown WILL be illuminated at night to become a becaon of the South Loop.

All of these items mentioned at the meeting killed a lot of opposition, and left many of the attendees in support of the tower.

South Loop Nieghbors was there with Peter Ziv plugging his website, which had a good portion of the room heckeling him to sit down. SLN was the only group to stand in opposition to the project as planned, all of the other NIMBY concerns were the typical stuff like traffic and setting a precident for the area.

Ald. Heithcock has turned 180 degrees, and completly supports the project and has adivised residents the South Loop is changing for the better, Wabash is becoming a great street with beautiful landscaping which other cities don't even attempt and that more projects of this scale are comming this way in the future.

One of the NIMBYs shouted to her if she gets paid off by developers as much as Naturas.

It looks like this one is a go for the approval route. They expect construction in thid quarter 2007 and completion in 2009.