WEST LOOP — As a developer prepares to pitch a controversial new condo development in the West Loop Monday night, neighbors say they will offer their own alternative plan for the site.
Wicker Park-based LG Development plans to propose a nine-story plus penthouse building at 111 S. Peoria St. at a meeting Monday night on a site that now houses a parking lot. But instead of condos, neighbors want to see a community center developed at 111 S. Peoria near Mary Bartelme Park in the West Loop, according to new renderings.
Neighbors plan to present their vision for a community center at a meeting to discuss the developer's project at 7 p.m. Monday at Merit School of Music, 38 S. Peoria St. The meeting is hosted by Ald. Walter Burnett Jr. (27th) and the West Loop Community Organization.
The community center plan, developed by the West Loop Residents Association and other neighbors, calls for a two-story community center to be developed at the 111 S. Peoria St. site instead of condos. The West Loop Community Center would be privately financed through fundraising, and neighbors say they already have a $2 million commitment that would be used to purchase the property.
The community center would include a green rooftop community garden, gym and meeting space for West Loop residents, according to the proposal. Neighbor Sam Tenenbaum, a proponent of the community center plan, said the group of neighbors who oppose LG Development's latest condo proposal wanted to offer a viable alternative for the site to the community.
LG Development does not currently own the lot, but does have a contract with the property's owner to buy the property for $6.25 million. The sale is contingent on a zoning change that would allow for their condo proposal to be developed at the site, according to a source familiar with deal.
Neighbors who want to build a community center at the site contend that the 111 S. Peoria property is not valued at $6.25 million without the zoning change. They said the entire community center plan will cost about $10 million.
The group of neighbors have also circulated a petition opposing LG Development's plan for the site. The petition has been signed by 345 people to date.
According to LG Development's new plans, the nine-story plus penthouse building would house 95 condominium units available for purchase.
After hundreds of West Loop residents shut down LG Development's plan to build a rental development at 111 S. Peoria St., the developer now is planning to build a condo development at the site, pictured above. [DNAinfo]
The developer previously planned to build a 13-story apartment tower at the site, but hundreds of West Loop residents slammed the project in June, leading Burnett to kill the rental development. Under that plan, 215 apartment units were proposed.
At the June meeting, the crowd took issue with the height of the building and the number of apartments. Neighbors said they did not want more rentals in the neighborhood and were concerned the new building could present safety issues for existing condo owners.
Comments made at that meeting about renters led Burnett to say in July that he thought the West Loop was starting to become "a bigot neighborhood."
"When I left that meeting, I felt that [some residents] were very discriminatory against [renters]. I felt bad that there was people sitting in that room that rent. You don't actually recognize that you are talking about people in the meetings. I thought it was wrong, I thought it was bad, and I tell you... it turned me off," Burnett later said.
The West Loop Residents Association and others strongly opposed the 13-story apartment building over months, ultimately hiring an attorney to fight the project.
The new 111 S. Peoria St. condo plan calls for a mix of one-, two-, three- and four-bedroom units and up to 141 parking spots on site. Previous plans called for up to 177 parking spots.
A one-bedroom condo would be 900-square-feet and a four-bedroom unit would feature 2,500-square-feet of space, according to renderings obtained by DNAinfo Chicago.
The nixed apartment plan called for apartments that ranged from about 495 square feet to 2,045 square feet.
The West Central Association is expected to announce their position on the development at the Monday night meeting, said the group's president Armando Chacon.
"We appreciate that the developer has addressed a lot of the concerns presented at the last community meeting," Chacon said. "We have encouraged an open and transparent vetting process and recommend that the developer proactively present details of the project and seek input from the community, and they've done that."
The 111 S. Peoria St. property is currently zoned DS-3 and the developer seeks a DX-5 zoning designation.
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