When does development become overdevelopment? Emily Coxhead and her neighbors think that their neighborhood–known variously as the “Fringe,” or “West DePaul,” or the “Clybourn Corridor”–has reached the saturation point. A proposal to build what Coxhead calls “seven very narrow town houses” on a skinny, block-long strip of land that also contains a working set of railroad tracks has them up in arms.
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This is only the latest example of what Coxhead and her neighbors consider “overbuilding to the nth degree, to the last inch.” She also cites town houses that were built into the courtyards of the Sanctuary, the troubled condominium development at Sheffield and Fullerton–“like somebody took a seam out to squeeze in something else.” Then there’s Belgravia Terrace at Sedgwick and Wisconsin–“very expensive town houses, very exclusive, where one set butts right up against the other.” There’s also the Embassy Club, across the street from the proposed Belden-Webster development, which she describes as “a very large project, with every inch of land being utilized. It’s also right next to the railroad, but the back of the houses face the tracks–they front onto an interior courtyard. And they created a street. Nobody else is doing without a street.”
Residents claim the area is already too congested, and dismiss claims that the town houses will have adequate parking. Coxhead cites the nearby Webster Place cinema development. “They promised us that they would have more than enough parking, but we get the overflow here. We already have to park two or three blocks from home now. So they’ll have garages. Where are their visitors going to park?” She and other residents also want to know how services would be delivered and who would pay for them. “The alley’s unpaved, but if you put that kind of traffic on it, you’ll have to pave it,” she says. “Who’s going to pay for that? The property owners who didn’t want the damned thing in the first place? We don’t have enough sewers, we don’t have enough telephone lines. I have a feeling we’re going to be strong-armed into just incredible density. It’s going to be squeeze, squeeze, squeeze all the way in.”
Fritz Biederman, the planning-committee chairman of the Sheffield Neighborhood Association, thinks a good counterproposal was made when the original request to rezone to R5 was turned down flat. He says the proposed Belden-Webster development “would be less dense than Lakewood. This spot zoning is kind of an isolated incongruity. Looking at the broadest scope of the neighborhood, I would consider rezoning to all residential.” Biederman’s board initially supported rezoning to R4. When nearby property owners objected, the board reconsidered. The matter is now resting for two months before further consideration, while all the parties involved try to agree on a compromise.
“It’s an impossible site–otherwise, it would have been developed long ago. I’d like to see it resolved in a way everyone can be happy with. Many people would love to see an apple orchard there. I’d love to see an apple orchard there. Is it likely? No.”
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): photo/Bruce Powell.
