Quote:
Originally Posted by Randomguy34
He listens more so to his Lincoln Park and West Town political base since they take up a much larger share of his ward than the small region in downtown. He voted against a 10 story proposal in the Lincoln Park area, but he hasn't blocked any development in the downtown section. We'll have to wait and see
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I think we can at least have a little hope. Hopkins does seem to have an understanding that downtown can handle tall buildings.
Anyone going to the meetings should ask why the parking ratio is so high - is that to serve Holy Name (annoying, but acceptable reason)? Or because there is a grocery store (bad reason)? Hopefully not only due to the high end nature of the residential units (terrible reason when building literally on a subway station). How many parking spots currently exist - I count somewhere in the vicinity of 160, plus about another 60 associated with the Dearborn townhomes, so going from a block with ~220 to 600+ spots is WAY more than needed just to replace existing parking needs.
I'm also kind of disappointed that there isn't some sort of public plaza. I was imagining towers at the corners with all parking underground and some sort of plaza space taking up maybe as much as 25% of the block's surface area that could be used for holiday festivals (imagine a mini-Christkindlemarkt) and other programming to draw in visitors and enliven the area. The autocourt looks dreary in the sketches.