FIGHTING FOR SENIOR HOUSING

September 9, 1997

Chicago Tribune

SENIOR HOUSING PLAN STIRS UP FOES IN UPTOWN

James Hill, Tribune Staff Writer.

Buena Park long has been a neighborhood in flux. Once an area of proud mansions and elegant courtyards, two decades ago it began to disintegrate into a community of neglected structures with a rather dicey reputation.

But since July 13, 1984, when the area was placed on the National Register of Historic Places, longtime residents, along with the newcomers who followed the Lakeview gentrification process northward, have sought to restore the image of this once grand neighborhood.

This has been a struggle. The Buena Park Historic District, after all, is in Uptown, a hodgepodge of affordable lakefront living where there always seems to be some sort of conflict: rich vs. poor; radical vs. conservative; the homeless vs. the developers; its outspoken Ald. Helen Shiller (46th) vs. City Hall.

So, perhaps, it shouldn't be surprising that a proposal for an affordable senior housing development on a plot of vacant land at 4040 N. Sheridan Rd., where the Palacio Theater once stood, is now causing a ruckus.

About 200 people crammed the auditorium of the St. Mary of the Lake School Monday night to hear about the project. After presentations by officials,, including the Chicago Department of Housing and the Illinois Historic preservation Agency, those in attendance were given their chance to speak.

Ultimately, a federal advisory council on historic preservation must sign off on the project.

Proponents Monday cited the need for affordable housing, particularly on the North Side and particularly for senior citizens. They also believe foes simply are frightened by the potential for low-income neighbors.

But opponents, while agreeing there is a need for affordable housing, say the integrity of the neighborhood in this historic district should also be of major concern. Critics maintain that the proposed eight-story, 83-unit Ruth Shriman House apartment building just doesn't fit, architecturally or aesthetically, into their perpetually renewing neighborhood, made up largely of three- and four-story brick courtyard buildings.

The community is bordered by Montrose Avenue on the north, Irving Park Road on the south, Clarendon Avenue on the east and Graceland Cemetery on the west.

"We welcome affordable senior housing in our community," said Christopher Pries, president of Buena Park Neighbors, the area block club that is opposing the structure. "We just ask this development partnership to respect our historic community and our goals of unification, beautification and health and safety for everyone in our neighborhood.

"We are asking them to lower the height and change the facade to be more consistent with the historic buildings which surround it in the immediate area."

But backers of the project, including many seniors who already have been displaced by gentrification, say there is a need for affordable housing on the North Side. They maintain that members of the Buena Park Neighbors have other motives for opposing the building.

"I think they just don't like the idea of low-income housing, and senior citizens, in an area that is beginning to gentrify," said Holy Trinity Lutheran Church Pastor Dan Schwick, vice president of the Lakeview Action Coalition and a member of the Ruth Shriman Affordable Housing Campaign steering committee.

The Lakeview Action Coalition has been working with the Jane Addams Senior Caucus and its Ruth Shriman Affordable Housing Campaign to promote, plan and develop the building.

Shiller, who along with City Hall has given her blessing to the project, supports the seniors and questions the sincerity of Buena Park Neighbors.

"They tried to say that the issue was not about low-income, just the historic features and aesthetics of the community, but after reading a letter that one of their board members wrote to the neighborhood paper, it seems clear to me that that isn't the case," she said.

The letter, dated Aug. 25 and signed by Darci Oberly, one of the Buena Park Neighbors, says the proposed building "does not meet the community's acceptance in either height or appearance."

However, it goes on to say, "The facade of the Housing Center is embarrassingly similar to the Cabrini-Green public housing development located in the Near North area. This public housing tract, among others, is now in the process of being renovated. It is one of many being renovated because they are not acceptable as housing and have been proven as non-successful places in which to live for citizens of any age."

Noting that Buena Park, and specifically Uptown, already has an abundance of low-income housing, the letter continues, "It is proven that high concentrations of this type of housing creates numerous social problems and creates atmospheres of violence and insecurity for the residents."

"I mean, come on," Shiller said. "You can't have better neighbors than senior citizens."

Shiller cites the fact that there currently is an 18-story senior apartment building at 4225 N. Sheridan Rd., in Buena Park, and there have been no problems with either the building's height or its residents.

Pries, however, counters that that building, Sherway Tower, was constructed before Buena Park was designated a historic district, and therefore is grandfathered in. No other building within a three-block radius is higher than four stories, he said.

The whole debate wouldn't even be an issue if the estimated $8 million project was not being paid for, at least in part, by federal funds.

"If this was a completely private project . . . they pretty much could just go ahead and build the building," said Anne Haaker, deputy state historic preservation officer with the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency.

As it stands, Haaker's office must sign off on the plans for the building. And the whole package must be approved by the Federal Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, she said.

Haaker, having heard from both sides in the brouhaha and having looked at the proposed plans for the building, said she had recommended several design changes to the Shriman House developers to cut down on the total scale of the building and to help it blend in better with existing structures--things like double-hung bay windows and a brick facade.

"But within the guidelines within which we operate, in our opinion, height is not an issue in this particular project," Haaker said.

"We looked at the plans for this building in relation to other buildings in the historic district, on North Sheridan Road and other streets, and don't think that an eight-story structure is incompatible."

And neither does Chuck Hughes, the 73-year-old co-chairman of the housing campaign's steering committee and a potential Shriman House resident.

"This is an ideal location because it is near a hospital, it's not far from the lake and there is good public transportation," Hughes said. "It's sad because, while they can't throw rocks at seniors, they seem to be trying to find other things to complain about. It's like, if they can't find people more like them, they don't want (the project)."

Copyright © 1997 Chicago Tribune Company