The redevelopment of the 2317 N Clark one is supposed to be 35 units with ground floor retail. Most of the parts of the building permit are getting denied. They had an architectural fire review on Thursday - denied.

I also found the permit for the Red Roof Inn. It's still not issued.

None of the "denied" matters from Building. Those are all minor nuts and bolts stuff.

The only "deny" that really feels like a kick in the nuts is from the Zoning reviewer.

I just bought an existing nonconforming 7 unit (front building and coach house) on an RS-3 that has pretty much been 6-8 units variably for possibly well over half a century, and all I want to do is rehab it into 5 units. The zoning examiner is being an arbitrary asshat and is saying I have to convert it into a SFH and deconvert the coach house to nonresidential uses.

Really? That's surprising. 9 of the 16 reviews in this building (new construction) got denied status. The following got denied for this site so far:

Architectural/Fire, Plumbing, Geotech, Mayor's Office/People with Disability, Landscape, Fire Prevention, Structural, Planning, and Revenue.

That feels like a lot, but none of this matters? I can't recall a permit being issued that had THAT many deny statuses.


That's depressing. Why the hell won't they officially re-zone it?

^ All you have to do is make the corrections to make the plumbing, electric, architecture reviewer pass it. Not a big deal.

But with zoning the question is whether they are allowing you to have the property you are proposing at all (number of units, amount of living space, parking etc) which is much more political and ultimately determines the value of the investment

Because the alderman is a militant communist. I'm not joking, he thinks he is che guevera for people displaced by gentrification.

Because non-conformities were never intended to last forever.
They were to be allowed to live out their useful life and be replaced with something that conformed with the surrounding district.

Something occurred that resulted in this property losing its non-conforming status. Probably was vacant for more than 18 months. Its current status should have been spelled out on the zoning compliance certificate he got when he bought it.

Now, unless he wants to conform, he'll have to play nice with the alderman.
Unless he's in a landmark district, he won't get the coach house back. You cannot have two principal buildings on one zoning lot.

I would suggest asking only for a temporary rezone. Long enough to get his permits and then zoned back to the underlying classification. This way it just becomes a legal non-conformity again, and that is a much easier sell.

^ It wasn't vacant for 18 months. That's the case I'm making. I might try to get it rezoned. I'm working on options.

The problem with what you're saying is that oodles and oodles of properties are "living out their useful lives" as nonconforming properties, even going vacant, but then still getting zoning approval to be gut rehabbed, which essentially assures their perpetual nonconforming status for generations. But Zoning Supervisors cannot be arbitrary. Unfortunately I'm learning that they are.

If that's the case, tell them to get bit. You are legally allowed to maintain the nonconforming status.

The coach house has a 12 month clock on it so be sure to keep that in mind when digging up records.

With that many units, there should be a registration on file at the DOB.

Fulton West - 1330 W Fulton
 

April 7, 2017



^ 171 N Aberdeen under construction on the left

City Winery River Domes
 

March 27, 2017

Apple Store ~ 401 N Michigan
 

April 7, 2017

Being trapped inside a plastic geodesic dome with a sommelier down by the river... the stuff of my nightmaresss

^ City Winery was busy as hell yesterday. 30 minute wait in line to get a drink! Those other places need to open up

Apple Store from across the River
http://i.imgur.com/xna5zVdh.jpg

1920 N Western
 

Mar 27
Fire Codes :-(




Apr 6


Apr 7

1767 N Milwaukee
 

Apr 6

The zoning in Chicago is a mess. My area of Avondale is almost entirely RS-3 single family and my block has a grand total of two single family homes on it, both of which were built new in the last few years on the only vacant lots on my street. Everything else is 2-6 units on a single lot. If the point of zoning is to keep districts uniform, then tell me how the RS-3 zoning of my block is keeping my block uniform by creating the only single unit buildings in the whole area?

Meanwhile the building TUP is talking about is just down the block from me on a minor arterial street next to two other buildings with coach houses and is also zoned RS-3! What the hell is that? Why is there RS-3 zoning anywhere on any street with stoplights on it? The buildings directly across the street from his are all zoned B3-2, in fact, the B3-2 randomly extends down a couple of side street, but just not on TUP's side of the street. We need to completely rezone the entire city and it should be law that new zoning cannot be less intense than the currently existing use of the area. That means Avondale should be entirely zoned for 3 flats except the few blocks West of Pulaski where there are bungalows. Arterials should only have B and C zoning on them, no RT-4 or any of that shit.

The city wonders where the affordable housing is going, well it's all gradually being wiped out by the zoning department as they gradually eliminate affordable units every time a shitty, affordable, old building full of units goes dark for a year.

^ This is correct. This whole citywide downzoning is nothing short of criminal. It makes no sense until you take on the perspective that it exists to ensure corruption at the Aldermanic level, then the haze clears.

Government works better when everybody is illegal, and all you have to do is pick on somebody who rubs you the wrong way. That's why speed limits on highways are set so low. Everybody is speeding, so cops can pull over anybody they choose.

Thanks for the little Milwaukee Ave tour, Harry.

Speaking of which, does anyone know what is going on with that 6-ish story white building/development near Grand/Milwaukee/Halsted, just a couple of doors down from (east of) the Dawson? I don't live near that area anymore and have an infant now, so don't have much time to check out the progress of smaller developments and just wanted to see how it was coming along.