Quote:
Originally Posted by PKDickman
17-4-1003-A
Planned Development Review.
Floor area bonuses under this Sec. 17-4-1000 may be approved only in accordance with the planned development procedures of Sec. 17-13-0600. The Zoning Administrator must review proposed floor area bonus requests and make a recommendation to the Commissioner of Planning and Development and the Chicago Plan Commission. The Commissioner of Planning and Development and the Chicago Plan Commission shall each in turn make a recommendation to the city council. Floor area bonuses may be approved only if they are consistent with the purposes described in Sec. 17-1- 0500, Sec.17-4-1001, and Sec. 17-8-0100.
I realize that wild speculation and wishful thinking is more fun, but reading the actual thing is a lot faster
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You conveniently missed the part of the bonus ordinance which requires that any denial of a bonus be explicitly justified and that approval may not be unreasonably withheld:
Quote:
17-4-1003 Administration.
17-4-1003-A Projects that are not Subject to Planned Development Review. For projects that are not subject to planned development review, the Zoning Administrator, as indicated in Sec. 17-4-1002, is authorized to award floor area bonuses.
17-4-1003-B Projects that are Subject to Planned Development Review. For projects that are subject to planned development review, the Zoning Administrator must review proposed floor area bonus requests and make a recommendation to the Commissioner of Planning and Development and the Chicago Plan Commission, who shall in turn make a recommendation to the City Council. The Commissioner of Planning and Development and Plan Commission may recommend modifications of standards due to unique circumstances so long as the public benefits of the proposed improvements or amenities are of equal or greater value than otherwise required.
17-4-1003-C Decision-making Criteria.
1. In acting on floor area bonuses, authorized decision-making bodies must evaluate proposed amenities based on their contribution to and the degree to which they enhance the quality of life and benefit the public in the surrounding area. Floor area bonuses may be approved only if they:
a.
comply with the standards and criteria of this section;
b.
are consistent with the purposes described in 17-4-1001 and Sec. 17-1-0500, and
c.
are consistent with the Guide to the Zoning Bonus Ordinance .
2. Approval of floor area bonuses may not be unreasonably withheld. Any reasons for denial of floor area bonuses must be provided to the applicant in writing.
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The law has teeth or there would have been literally no reason to pass it in the first place. Just because city council has to approve PD's doesn't mean they can just deny PD's that comply with bonuses spelled out in the law. All PD's are voted on by city council and in downtown districts they are often triggered automatically. If what you are implying is true, the city council could just deny any automatically triggered PD for any reason, even if it is in compliance with the underlying zoning. Pretty much anything over 300-400' tall or taking up a half block or more (due to the unit threasholds easily triggered by such quantities of FAR) gets an automatic PD. Example being that huge John Buck development in the West Loop which would be totally as of right if it were 5 separate buildings on the block, but triggers the PD because it's one huge development with more units than the threshold. Just because the city council has to approve something, doesn't mean they always have a choice to do it legally.
For example, if you have a site like the Buck property and it is all DX-5 and 100,000 SF you can legally build 500 units (as per MLA of 200 SF) on it as of right, but the PD trigger for DX-5 is only 150 units. They could just build 4 separate buildings with 125 units in each and no PD would be triggered. They are
entitled to that amount of density. So if they propose it all as one big development, the city can't actually deny them approval on those grounds or it would be a taking and they could sue to force approval of 500 units. Of course they can block the developer on other grounds if some sort of administrative details are off, but just because something is a PD doesn't mean that it is a full on zoning change requiring the usual NIMBY festival. That's really what the Department of Planning does in these cases, tells the city whether or not it is in compliance and should approve it. It's not like the process for normal zoning changes where it is entirely political. The same is true about density bonuses, yes it's a PD process, but if they are complying with the zoning bonus, the city council has to have legitimate grounds on which to deny the request. They didn't just write an entire ordinance just for show so they can hide from NIMBY's behind it. It has legal teeth and denying a request that complies with underlying zoning (and the density bonus ordinance) on arbitrary grounds like "my constituents are afraid of density" is no different than a city council vote arbitrarily downzoning a property for the same reason. Something isn't automatically legal and in compliance with the law just because city council votes on it.
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