Quote:
Originally Posted by BonoboZill4
At least almost all the townhomes will be in the southern section near Roosevelt
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Townhomes are fine with me so long as they have an urban site plan. None of that closed-off, urban fortress Dearborn Park crap.
I think it is worth noting, though, that the city almost never holds up its end of the bargain in providing new streets, paths, bridges, etc that would allow these huge post-industrial sites to develop in a walkable manner so fortress development is sort of inevitable.
We did a townhouse development in Cabrini, the City (and CHA) promised a new street on the eastern side where there was just vacant land, but never did a damn thing, so we put in a fence... now it's in the hands of the homeowners association, so if the city ever does build that street, there will just be a blank fence forever. Fortunately our project was only about one square block, but if it had been a larger project then we would effectively end up with another Dearborn Park wall because of the city's inaction.
Thankfully Lincoln Yards and The 78 are both moving forward under a TIF that allows the developer to build that needed infrastructure themselves and forces the city to reimburse them out of tax proceeds. I believe Riverline actually falls under the same TIF as The 78, so it may get some new infrastructure out of the deal like a Taylor St bridge (which adds value to the project, imagine buying a townhouse or condo with a 3 minute walk to Whole Foods...)