CREATING COMMUNITY ZONING PROCESS

December 2, 2002

Chicago Sun Times

Plan would halt Halsted condos ; High-rise residences would be barred for five-block stretch

Spielman, Fran

Developers chomping at the bit to build residential high-rises on Chicago's bustling North Side would be barred from encroaching on a five-block stretch of the popular Halsted Street entertainment district, under a zoning change advanced a City Council committee.

High-density residential projects such as the one going up at Halsted and Cornelia and another one, the Plaza 32, farther south on Halsted threaten the viability of a commercial strip that Chicago's gay community holds dear, according to Tom Tunney, the owner of five Ann Sather's restaurants.

Tunney is expected to be appointed by Mayor Daley to fill the aldermanic seat vacated by retiring Ald. Bernard Hansen (44th), whose resignation was effective last week.

The 47-year-old Tunney would become Chicago's first openly gay alderman. He is expected to face at least one other openly gay candidate, Rick Ingram, in the Feb. 25 aldermanic election for the right to represent a ward where as much as 20 percent of the population is gay.

"There's a special integrity to Halsted Street. The gay and lesbian community has roots there. They own properties there. It's become a tourist area for people all over the Midwest and all over the country. I'm very interested in keeping it that way," Tunney said.

"When you put luxury condos next to an entertainment area, it's cause for trouble. You're going to have problems with noise, congestion and garbage.

"Responsible business people are responsible neighbors. But, we don't want people to be naive about living on a commercial strip. . . . This is a good effort to try to maintain the integrity of the street, keep it commercial and forestall large-scale residential development."

The zoning change advanced by the Zoning Committee at the behest of Ald. Helen Shiller (46th) would sharply restrict the density of future development on the east side of Halsted between Cornelia and Grace and on the west side of the street between Grace and Waveland. The area, formerly in the 44th Ward, has been in the 46th since the ward remap took effect in April.

Zoning Committee Chairman William Banks (36th) welcomed Shiller's decision to take "preventive" action instead of waiting for the massive rewrite he's spearheading of Chicago's 1957 zoning ordinance.

"In Phase Two, we'll go into communities and redirect planning as it applies to development. But in this particular case the alderman sensed there was more urgency. If she waited eight months to a year, she's afraid she would get more and more applications for residential uses and then it would be too late," Banks said.

"She's identified a problem or a potential problem, consulted with her community and determined what they want--in this case, a business-entertainment district."

Copyright Chicago Sun Times Dec 2, 2002