WICKER PARK — Plans are under way to build 14 rowhouses on a fenced-in field just south of the Wicker Park Damen "L" stop that is the largest undeveloped parcel near the Milwaukee, Damen and North avenues intersection.
Wicker Park's LG Development and Greymark Development Group have partnered up on a plan to build two rows of seven adjacent rowhouses at 2024-28 W. LeMoyne St., just west of Damen Avenue.
Conceptual renderings, not final, by Greymark Development (DNAinfo/Alisa Hauser)
The four-story homes would each be 3,083 square-feet and offer four bedrooms, three bathrooms, a rooftop terrace and a two-car garage, according to preliminary renderings.
At a meeting in the Wicker Park Field House, 1425 N. Damen Ave., on Tuesday, Donavan Eckhardt, owner of Greymark Development Group, told about eight members of the Wicker Park Committee that his firm has a contract to buy the land.
Eckhardt said the proposal is "in the early stages," with a sale contingent upon getting a zoning change.
Just west of Damen Avenue and around the corner from the "L" stop, the homes would span six city lots. The land is owned by Rowstar LLC, which is headed by Tara Steinschneider Vossough, according to county records.
After the meeting, Ed Tamminga, chairman of the Wicker Park group's preservation and development subcommittee, said that the group was "fairly supportive of the concept but have some reservations on the size" of the homes.
"The feeling of some on the subcommittee was that it was an overreach" to ask for the zoning change to allow for the larger homes, Tamminga said.
The land's existing zoning would allow the construction of homes that are around 2,200-2,500 square feet and just under four stories or 38-feet tall. Instead, the developers want to change the zoning to allow homes as large as 3,135 square feet and 45 feet tall.
Tamminga said his group is reluctant to support the zoning change.
"We like the fact it is a townhouse-ownership project as opposed to a large condo or an apartment building, which makes it beneficial for the neighborhood. It's reasonably optimistic that something can be worked out," Tamminga said.
Susan Dinko, a longtime resident and Realtor who used to live near the field but was not at the meeting, described the lot as "a premium location."
"It's one of the last remaining large residential parcels and probably the biggest," Dinko said.
Dinko said the land has been vacant since the late 1970s, when there was "a big U-shaped apartment building" that burned down in a fire.
For more neighborhood news, listen to DNAinfo Radio here:
