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Logan Residents Being Evicted From 'Micro Apartment' Site Vow To Fight

By Paul Biasco | September 7, 2016 1:16pm
 A rendering of the development project slated for 2328 N. California Ave..
A rendering of the development project slated for 2328 N. California Ave..
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Savoy Development

LOGAN SQUARE — Another large-scale apartment development is preparing to break ground in Logan Square, but residents who live in apartments on the site are preparing to fight the project.

Developers behind a planned "micro apartment" complex at 2328 N. California Ave. are seeking to break ground by the end of the year to make way for 138 apartments.

There are six families that live in apartments on the site that have received 30 day eviction notices ahead of the planned demolition of the buildings on site.

There are currently apartments and a car wash on the site.

"At this point. none of the families we are working with are planning to move," said Lily Lerner, a tenant organizer with the Albany Park-based Autonomous Tenants Union. "They are here to resist and fight the eviction."

 The shuttered car wash where the development is planned to replace.
The shuttered car wash where the development is planned to replace.
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DNAinfo/Paul Biasco

Savoy Development's proposal was approved by the City Council in June and the company is now finishing up plans to move toward construction, according to Enrico Plati, founding principal at Savoy Development.

"We are moving quickly to complete drawings and move ahead," he said. 

The next step for the developer will be to get a demolition permit from the city.

Plati said the current landlord, Francisco Macias, is the one handling the eviction of tenants on the site.

The tenants had been on month-to-month leases that have expired, Lerner said. 

"We don’t have any other options,” said Francisco Silva, who has lived in his home on the site for more than 10 years. “It’s impossible to find another place. We need to work together to make sure that we and other renters have affordable places to live."

Residents of the six units on the site as well as the Autonomous Tenants Union, Somos Logan Square and Grassroots Illinois Action are planning a media event to announce their plans to fight the development Thursday morning.

The goal is to fight and delay the development as long as possible, according to Lerner.

Plati said construction would have started by now, but they're waiting on ComEd to move its service. 

"That's why the project cannot break ground until the end of the year," Plati said.

The developer hopes to move residents in by early 2018.

The original plan for the site was to build 52 units in a transit-oriented-development project, but after receiving approval by the city's Plan Commission in March 2015, the developer came back to the community with an expanded plan for the now 138-unit project.

RELATED: Developer Wants to Double Logan Square 'Micro Apartment' Project

Logan Square Towers Prepare For October Move-Ins

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