As expensive residential developments rose along the northern end of Halsted Street, Lake View residents and business leaders sought to downzone a portion of the thoroughfare, a center of gay and lesbian night life, citing the development as a threat to their businesses and the character of the neighborhood.
But their efforts have met a brick wall in recent months. Ald. Bernard Hansen (44th) has indicated he prefers to wait until the city completes a citywide rezoning effort.
The Lake View groups seeking the downzoning worry that the citywide zoning revisions could take years, long enough to allow development to alter the face of their portion of Halsted Street, currently a thriving gay and lesbian entertainment district where retailers and service providers are interspersed with night clubs and restaurants.
“It seems only fair that as long as this delay in downzoning is in effect, there should be a corresponding moratorium or delay in development plans,” said Charlotte Newfeld, a board member of the Lake View Citizens’ Council.
Such downzoning would essentially cut in half the number of residential units that future developers would be allowed to build along Halsted between Belmont Avenue and Grace Street. Attempting to head off the threat of residential encroachment last summer, several of 13 local groups that function under the umbrella of the Lake View Citizens’ Council sent letters requesting that Hansen introduce a downzoning ordinance before members of the City Council.
Simultaneously, they requested the same from Ald. Helen Schiller (46th), whose ward includes the most northerly block of Halsted. She introduced the ordinance before the City Council in December.
Hansen, however, responded through a letter, delivered by a representative to one of the neighborhood groups, Belmont Harbor Neighbors. In the letter he said it would be more prudent to wait until city officials are finished with their rewrite of zoning laws.
He indicated that a City Council subcommittee headed by Ald. Bernard Stone (50th) was working on a part of that zoning revision aimed specifically at business/commercial districts.
“It will restrict building heights to 55 feet in C-4 districts, unless a lot is over 50 feet wide. For every lot foot over 50 feet, a developer would be able to add 10 feet of height, to a maximum of 70 feet,” Stone said.
The proposed height limitation, allowing buildings of up to five or six stories in districts zoned C-4, would not satisfy the Lake View groups’ requests. They would like the entertainment district downzoned from its current C1-4 designation to C1-2.
The community groups decided to pursue the downzoning as residential developments multiplied along Halsted northward from Belmont.
Two recent new-construction developments especially alarmed the groups. One is the 56-unit Dakota condominiums at 3631 N. Halsted and the other, Plaza 32, at 3232 N. Halsted, a two-building, 130-unit condominium development.
Locals involved in the downzoning effort worry that incoming condo buyers will not embrace the ambience of the entertainment district, and that they will eventually petition for new land use as properties become vacant or are sold, altering the community’s character.
“It is a quality of life issue,” said John Robb of the Belmont Harbor Neighbors, one of the Lake View council’s autonomous neighborhood groups.
“Physically, (the two developments) are too large for the area,” he said. “They will only add to traffic problems here. We already have gridlock on weekends, and when there are Cub games you can’t even drive down the street. Any large residential developments are only going to add to that.”
Local residents and businesspeople are also concerned about other real estate dealings along Halsted Street. One is the recent sale of a lot at Halsted and Cornelia Avenue, formerly the site of Euro Auto Center. The property was sold in a sealed bid sale last fall, Robb said.
“I know someone who bid $1.5 million for that site and it was not enough,” added Robb, who says the high price indicates the possibility of another large residential development.
Another developer has purchased a property just south of Roscoe Street on the west side of Halsted, according to Ald. Hansen, who added in a phone conversation earlier this month that both developers have already agreed to keep their residential developments restricted to three stories.
And other parcels along Halsted, such as a Park District-owned garage that has been vacant for years, have neighborhood groups concerned that developers will target them for additional residential projects.
Meanwhile, Hansen expressed frustration with the pursuit.
“At least three times in the last decade or so, we sought downzoning for the area and they fought it,” said Hansen. “They can’t have their cake and eat it too.”
