Community survey for 2232 W Lawrence in Lincoln Square: "Farmers Garden Market" condo development

Please read the following letter from Alderman Pawar's 47th Ward office and complete the survey concerning proposed new construction at 2232 W Lawrence Avenue, Chicago IL 60625 (pictured below).  For the record, I am in favor of an ALL residential building with larger units. More retail units should follow the addition of more residential units.

2232 W Lawrence is the former Farmers Garden Market that never really got going.  New residential condo building proposals are on the table. The purchase of the lot is estimated between $1.2 and $1.4 million. Photo Eric Rojas, Broker, Kale Realty

Dear Community Members,

Alderman Pawar wishes your feedback on these development proposals for this lot. See the info below and please click on the survey to give us your feedback (whether or not you may have attended the October 29 community meeting).

Proposal:

Candea Development is proposing two possible development options for this 82’x124’ lot previously used by local resident and business owner Mark Borelli as a garden center. Option 1 is a 4.5-story 50’ high all residential building with ten 3-bdrms and two 4-bdrms condo units. Option 2 is a 5-story 60’ high building with 2,488 square feet of ground floor commercial space and ten 3-bdrms and four 2-bdrms condo units. Both options provide parking for 12 bikes either 17 cars or with a Bell side driveway 23 cars. One ARO (“affordable”) unit would be required for which the developer said he would satisfy by paying a $125,000 fee. For drawings, see www.chicago47.org/zoningdevelopment-cases.

Approval Process:

After the first step of going to our 47^th Ward Zoning Advisory Committee (meeting on September 24), Alderman Pawar then called for a community meeting which was held on October 29 with about 50 people in attendance including developer Alan Candea, the architect, the realtor, lot owner Mark Borelli, and residents primarily from Bell Avenue and nearby streets. The main issues discussed were building height (i.e., potential shading of neighbors’ yards, scale of building compared to nearby Lawrence buildings, precedence set), alley traffic and potential of Bell Avenue driveway to reduce this, parking (some folks felt the close to 2:1 parking was still insufficient), and whether the building should have a storefront on the ground floor. Further below are the follow-up issues from the meeting. Given the lack of consensus from the community meeting Alderman Pawar is asking community members to complete this short survey. Please take a few moments to complete this survey by Monday November 16.

Follow-Up to Issues raised at Community Meeting:

·         The developer provided diagrams and interpretation from Shade & Light Study (click here). While there is significant shading it is most prominent in the winter months.

·         If a driveway is part of the plans for the building, we can looking into the possibility of a two-way Bell Avenue from Lawrence to the alley north thereof. This would be similar to the limited two-way Oakley by Wintrust Bank. Parking would have to be stripped from the street in this scenario.

·         What is possible in the current B1-1 zoning? A building no taller than 38 feet (three stories) with a maximum interior square footage of 12,201 (calculated from the maximum FAR of 1.2 times the lot square footage). The maximum number of dwelling units is 4. There is no (“zero”) front and side setbacks but the minimum rear setback is 30 (given the property abuts a R zoned property). One parking space would be required per dwelling unit but commercial spaces do not require parking (depending on the potential use however parking may be required, e.g. daycare).

·         If the property is rezoned to a dash-3 level or higher (e.g. B2-3 or B1-5) then the building plan associated with the rezoning request must be a condition of the rezoning. This is called a Type 1 rezoning and means no one can the original plan submitted with the rezoning anytime afterwards.

·         As Lawrence Avenue streetscape was recently completed we believe the condition of the main sewer would be able to handle additional buildings along Lawrence.

Ernie Constantino

Planning & Development Director

47^th Ward Alderman Pawar’s Office

4243 N. Lincoln Avenue

773-549-4555

More Lawrence development talk here