The Chicago Plan Commission on Thursday approved a proposal to replace a vacant lot in Lakeview on the North Side with a 12-story apartment building.
Builder DLG Development plans to create 188 units, including 38 affordable apartments, at 3611 N. Halsted St., and transform an adjacent alley into a public park.
The $70 million project, called The Phoenix, won support from Ald. Angela Clay, 46th, along with a number of neighbors, who said the city needs more housing and a larger tax base. Other local residents worried the building would be too large and out-of-scale with the surrounding area, and environmental advocates said the plan doesn’t take enough steps to protect migratory birds.
DLG Development still needs green lights from the City Council’s Zoning Committee and the full City Council.
“Chicago, and Lakeview in particular, where this development will hopefully be built, are in desperate need for more housing,” said Zach Welden, who lives nearby. “Developments like this will help to curb rising home and rent prices.”
Brandon Willis, a homeowner in the 46th Ward, said the close proximity of the CTA’s Red Line and several well-used bus routes to the 3600 block of North Halsted Street should ease concerns the project would choke the streets with traffic.
“I walk past this lot four or five times a day,” Willis said. “We need to have something there.”
The brick- and masonry-clad building will include 77 underground parking spaces, enough storage room for 188 bicycles, and will generate about 32 vehicles per hour during peak commuting hours, said Studio Dwell Architects principal Mark Peters, the project architect.
It will also include a rooftop garden, ground-floor commercial space and transform a portion of the alley on its south side into a small park open to the public, Peters said.
Many residents of The Dakota Condominiums, located one door north of the site, oppose DLG Development’s proposal.
“Of particular concern is the proposed elimination of the south alley access to Halsted Street,” said Cameron Thomas, a Dakota resident. “This alley is a public right-of-way, relied upon by residents, service providers, emergency vehicles, and city operations. Vacating or functionally eliminating this public alley would remove shared public infrastructure for the benefit of a private developer.”
Plan Commission member Ald. Daniel La Spata, 1st, said he liked the idea of using the alley as a park, and developers in other neighborhoods like Fulton Market, where a development surge has brought in thousands of new residents but few new park spaces, should consider it.
“It’s a smart way to add open space,” La Spata said.
Chicago resident Butler Adams told commission members the 137-foot-tall Phoenix should blend in well with the rest of Lakeview.
“It’s not out-of-scale with the neighborhood, there is a building 100 feet taller just two blocks to the north,” Adams said.
Christine Esposito, a representative of Bird Friendly Chicago, said her organization has been pressing Chicago developers to adopt design features that experts say protect migratory birds, and she praised some of the design features of The Phoenix. DLG Development agreed to minimize deadly bird collisions by using steel picket balcony railings and dark-sky exterior lights, she said, but the developer should also include bird-friendly windows.
“Any untreated glass will be a deadly hazard for birds,” she said. “No one wants to see a bird slam into a building and fall dead to the ground.”
La Spata, who voted to support the new development, said he hoped the developer and architect could come up with a plan to enhance its bird protection features before it goes to the council’s Zoning Committee.
The Plan Commission also approved the construction of a 54-unit supportive housing development at 4432 N. Clarendon Ave. in Uptown by Sarah’s Circle, an Illinois nonprofit that serves women at risk of homelessness.
Commission members also approved the development of hundreds of new apartments in the Fulton Market area, including a proposal for a 29-story, 347-unit building at 215 N. Racine Ave. by Domus Real Estate Group. There would be 70 affordable units.
Zoning Administrator and Plan Commission member Patrick Murphey opposed the Domus project as proposed, saying the needed zoning classification for a building this tall and dense was typically reserved for downtown.
Department of Planning and Development Commissioner Ciere Boatright and Ald. Walter Redmond Burnett, 27th, supported the $175 million project, and said it would help the city chip away at its long-standing housing shortage.
The Plan Commission voted 11-2 to send it to the Zoning Committee with a positive recommendation.
“We need the jobs, and we need the housing,” Burnett said.
Builder DLG Development plans to create 188 units, including 38 affordable apartments, at 3611 N. Halsted St., and transform an adjacent alley into a public park. (Studio Dwell Architects)
