The broad outlines of a radical remake of Cabrini-Green, one of America’s most notorious public housing developments, began to take shape Wednesday. They include a billion-dollar blueprint that envisions tearing down nearly every high-rise at the complex and building houses, shops and a nearby sports arena for DePaul University.
Ten development teams submitted proposals that differed widely in their scope. But officials of only three of the plans were willing to talk about them Wednesday. The most ambitious of those plans–the $1 billion proposal from a team led by developers Dan McLean and Allison Davis, DePaul and New City YMCA–was touted in a glossy, color brochure and a 12-minute video that’s already been sent to City Hall.
McLean and other members of the team painted a picture of a neighborhood full of the things most Americans take for granted–a variety of shops, well-kept parks, good schools. Even Division Street, whose name symbolizes Cabrini’s isolation from the rest of the city, would become a tree-lined boulevard under the proposal.
“People of varying incomes will live side by side, no stigma for being poor,” McLean said. “The houses will be alike in quality, no matter who lives in them.”
Habitat Co., the private firm that is overseeing Cabrini’s redevelopment for the Chicago Housing Authority, had instructed members of the 10 development groups not to reveal their proposals to the news media. Some firms subsequently canceled scheduled interviews with the Tribune, but the McLean team and two others talked anyway.
In justifying Habitat’s action, the firm’s executives cited a HUD guideline that directs them to review the proposals before making them public. HUD officials backed Habitat’s position not to immediately make the plans available to the media.
“It’s standard practice that such proposals are not released until a recommendation is made,” in part, because the plans include proprietary financial information, said HUD spokeswoman Jeanne Crowley. “We also feel a responsibility to share the proposals with the residents before we make them public.”
Habitat will make a recommendation to the CHA by late March as to which proposals or combination of proposals should be used, company executives said. The CHA is then expected to submit a revised Cabrini redevelopment proposal to HUD sometime the following month, according to Habitat executive Valerie Jarrett, Chicago’s former planning commissioner.
Despite their defiance of Habitat, the three teams that held press conferences to discuss their proposals will not be disqualified or penalized, she said.
Even as his team moved to seize the public relations edge, McLean declared it was discussing its plan now because community residents and taxpayers have a right to know about the competing proposals before a final selection is made. “We don’t want this to seem like this is something being conducted behind closed doors,” he said. “This is a public debate.”
With $50 million in federal subsidies, the Cabrini redevelopment will be the most widely-watched example of a national housing program designed to free housing authorities from burdensome regulations. With its high-rises looming just a few blocks from the prosperous neighborhoods of the Gold Coast and Lincoln Park, the 70-acre, 3,200-unit complex is a national symbol of public housing’s woes.
The 10 teams submitting proposals include those headed by residential developers Shaw Co., Enterprise Development and City Lands Corp. Another team is led by Chicago architect Peter Landon, who’s working with Thrush Companies, a residential developer.
But the dominant proposal comes from the McLean team, largely because it already owns nearly 20 acres of land near Cabrini that can help CHA accomplish its key goal of breaking up the concentration of poverty at the development.
The McLean-Davis proposal would demolish 21 of Cabrini’s 23 high-rises over five years, replacing them with townhomes, two- and three-flats and single-family homes. The demolition portion of the plan is sure to be opposed by resident leaders, who have vowed to fight any tear-downs beyond the three buildings the CHA is already razing.
But McLean said that no current Cabrini families would have to move out of the neighborhood. He said replacement housing would be available in the “second half” of 1996, with construction set to begin in February on the land the development team already owns.
In the first phase, McLean would raze four high-rises in addition to the three already set for demolition by CHA. Its plan would spread 1,620 new units–450 of which would be public housing–over 40 acres: the 20 acres it owns; and 20 owned by the CHA.
The plan calls for a new community library, a 90-unit single-room-occupancy building, two new rapid transit stations, and a 150,000-square-foot shopping area near the corner of Clybourn Avenue and Division Street. The city street grid would be relaid, and Division would be widened as part of an effort to convert it into a boulevard.
Educational problems of Cabrini children could be addressed by a proposed “model” public grade school and a new alternative school for high school dropouts. And DePaul would get a sports arena abutting Cabrini’s current western border that would be shared with the community.
The McLean team took pains to mention support for its proposal from the North Town Community Congress, an umbrella organization of community groups and social service agencies in the Near North area.
“The partners have assured us that no resident who wants to remain here will be displaced,” said Regina Stewart, chair of the community congress. “That is a cardinal requirement.”
Referring to the plan’s $1 billion price tag, McLean said bankers “up and down LaSalle Street” were ready to make loans but declined to name any of them.
Unlike the wide-ranging McLean plan, the proposal by Thrush Companies and Landon Architects is restricted to land within Cabrini-Green’s borders and calls for building 185 housing units, roughly one-ninth as many as McLean’s.
In another contrast to that plan, which promises 2 of every 10 units will be for very poor and working poor families eligible for public housing, the Thrush-Landon proposal envisions reserving 4 of every 10 units for very poor public housing residents.
Landon, who said he has met with Cabrini tenants for two months described his plan as “a community-based solution.”
The remainder of the units would be market rate–most to be rented, with some to be owned. The plan would use a variety of city and state subdidy programs to encourage home ownership among working poor families.
Physically, the Thrush plan mirrors many of the same ideas as the McLean proposal. But its economic focus is on low- and moderate-income families, with a top sale price of $150,000. That’s in contrast to the up-to-$250,000 prices that are part of the McLean plan. Landon and Thrush officials did not disclose the total projected cost of their plan.
The proposal offered by City Lands Corp. would consist of 94 units of public housing within Cabrini’s present borders and 44 units of mixed housing in the Austin neighborhood on the city’s West Side. Total cost of the plan, its backers said, would be $16 million.
