Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr Downtown
Or it could just possibly be that LvdW's client is trying to do something that's just not a good idea. We don't know. All we ever hear is his complaints. He's always very vague about the issue, the project, the location.
We spent a couple of years a decade ago looking at the zoning code. After debating matters for many months, we got the rather modest reforms of 2004. In a republic, the outcome is sometimes a compromise.
What we never got was a remapping, of what zones apply to what parts of the city. That would require some sort of comprehensive plan rather than simply looking at development as a series of transactions.
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My "client", which is me, is trying to pull a radical maneuver called "renovate an abandoned building back to the exact same state is had been for 125 years prior to being abandoned". It's totally a terrible idea to restore a side entrance six flat with a corner store back to a side entrance six flat with a corner store. How absurd of me to think that I should be entitled to continue using the building the way it has been used for over a century.
They downzoned it to R zoning (which is absurd on a block consisting entirely of 3+ unit buildings). Then they told me I couldn't keep the retail because I didn't have continuous use since it has been abandoned for 3 or 4 years. So I went in and got a zoning changed to B3. And now they are stonewalling me because the mechanics garage I own next door supposedly counts as "residential parking" which is just fucking stupid since it's connected directly to the retail space, has 15' clear ceilings, a skylight, and massive steel framed windows. I mean most residential garages are built like that right? Who doesn't have a storefront attached to their garage?
/Sarcasm
No, I very much know what I'm doing and I am not asking for anything radical here. I am merely asking for the city to let me return a vacant building to the same productive use it served for 125 years. I've applied for permits only to be told I couldn't keep the retail. So I got a zoning change. I applied for permits again. The city didn't enter the zoning change in for all the pins so I had to get them to fix their own clerical error and apply AGAIN. Now they want me to provide 5 parking spaces because I have 5 residential units despite the fact that there has never been parking for anything but the storefront (which is why I got a zoning change to begin with). As if that weren't absurd enough they are asking me to get a letter from the CTA allowing me to pass under some of their property to get to my own building. Again, people have been passing under the L for over a century and were never required to get a letter. That process alone is probably 2 or 3 months of wasted time. Meanwhile I'm paying the city thousands of dollars in vacant building fees and taxes and also racking up huge carrying costs all because the city is grossly incompetent.
I've been intentionally vague about the details of this project for good reason. If someone at city hall reads this page and decides I'm causing trouble for them, I'll never get permits for a project in this city every again. Why? Because that's how the beasties down there work. If you make their job difficult, they will simply shut you out.
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