LOGAN SQUARE — The team behind a controversial "micro apartment" development proposed for Logan Square has requested to expand the already-approved project from 52 to 135 apartment units.
The original plan to build 52 units in the transit-oriented-development project was approved by the city's Plan Commission in March.
Savoy Development's project at 2328 N. California Ave. is now seeking to up the project from 52 units to 135 apartments, a 160 percent increase, according to a letter from the Greater Goethe Neighborhood Association. The developer requested to expand the project during a meeting with the neighborhood group's zoning and planning committee on July 13.
The new request would increase the height of the project from five stories to six stories, include retail on the ground floor and 48 parking spaces and add a small "pocket park."
The original plan included just 18 parking spaces and six affordable housing units.
The expanded project is possible because the developer recently acquired an adjacent property to the north of the original site, according to the letter from the neighborhood association.
The price of the micro rental units, with an average size of 439-square-feet for a studio, 537-square-feet for a one-bedroom and about 1,000-square-feet for two-bedroom units, surprised some in the community. Studios in the original plan would be $1,200, one-bedroom units $1,400, and two-bedroom units will go for roughly $2,100, according to the developer.
Some residents expressed concerns that the project was discussed at a "closed door" meeting between developers and a neighborhood group last summer.
The developer had hoped to break ground as early as August on the original proposal.
The Greater Goethe Neighborhood Association's Zoning and Planning Committee voiced a number of concerns to Ald. Joe Moreno (1st) in a letter sent to his office Friday.
The group recommends that the project design be brought back down to five stories and requested that the developer include 14 affordable housing units.
The group also recommended that the alderman not move forward with the plan until after a community meeting.
The developer and Ald. Moreno were not immediately available for comment Friday afternoon.
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