Neighbors Take Issue With East Lakeview Residential Development Plan
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Some neighbors in East Lakeview are taking issue with plans for a massive 15-story residential development at the northernmost end of the Boystown strip.
The development, which is outlined on the Web site of Ald. James Cappleman (46th), would rise at the northwest corner of Halsted Street and Bradley Place. The site is now a parking lot used by the Faith Tabernacle Church, 3750 N. Halsted St., and the popular 24-hour IHOP restaurant at 3760 N. Halsted St.
Neither the church nor the IHOP would be affected by the construction.
Cappleman's Web site displays floor plans and artist's renderings for the development, which would include 46,000 square feet of commercial space on the ground floor along Halsted Street, and at least 340 studio, one-bedroom and two-bedroom apartments with an entrance at 818 W. Bradley Pl. The development would also include 369 parking spaces.
The apartments would be arranged in an L-shape around a swimming pool and green roof on the fifth floor.
The development was designed by Hartshorne Plunkard Architecture, the same firm that designed the much-heralded plan to bring a Hyatt Hotel and new office in retail space to the old Harper Court complex in the Hyde Park neighborhood.
But in East Lakeview, many neighbors do not like the new development plan at all. The group Halsted Neighbors thinks the development would mean a "potentially devastating change" the "tone, appearance and enjoyment" of the neighborhood.
The group complains that the development will eliminate street parking for those who live on Bradley Place, while apparently providing no parking for patrons of whatever stores move in on the ground floor.
The group also says the potential occupancy of over 700 is unlikely to be reached given the small size of the apartments, and as a result, the building could mean a housing surplus and lower property values.
Halsted Neighbors has also set up an online petition against the development, as well as a Facebook group.
The area around the planned development is composed primarily of smaller-scale residential and commercial buildings. The northernmost bar on the Boystown gay nightlife strip, the North End, is located directly across the street from the planned development site.
But the area is not without tall, high-density structures. At 810 W. Grace St. directly across from the IHOP is the Gill Park Cooperative, a limited-equity low-income residential tower that rises to a height of 27 stories.
And across Halsted Street just to the south stands the Dakota, a six-story, 56-unit condo building at 3631 N. Halsted St. where neighbors got into a well-publicized fight with the Circuit nightclub next door back in 2004. Although Circuit predated Dakota, some neighbors in the Dakota tried to get the nightclub shut down by voting the precinct dry, on the grounds that the club was generating too much noise. The dry vote petition ultimately failed to make the ballot.
