The Dec. 13 Tribune editorial “Attack of the parking podiums” was a well-aimed missile. The problem is that the ugly ramparts constructed along Wabash, Rush, State, Dearborn, etc., north of the Chicago River, are there to stay. Coming revisions to the zoning code threaten to be too little too late.
These disgraces to our city’s urban legacy might not have happened had there been active neighborhood organizations at the time, demanding refinement and sound city planning. As it turned out, the prospect of more residents in the Center City, more jobs and an increased tax base, while laudable, took precedence over any other consideration.
The new central area neighborhoods that have been created by recent development are now active and vigorously demanding closer scrutiny by the city of building permit and planned development applications.
This is as it should be, but the city’s response must not be confined to the promise of zoning code reform. A moratorium on large project approvals should be imposed until the zoning code is amended, or at least a requirement be put in place that those projects be processed as planned developments .
