NOBLE SQUARE — Residents who live next to a large plot of empty land owned by the Polish Roman Catholic Union of America seemed unconvinced that a proposed 160-unit luxury apartment and townhome complex would be a good addition to their enclave just off the Kennedy expressway.
"My biggest worry is parking and the number of people who would come in and turn this into Wicker Park," said Shawn Goins, a resident who attended a Monday night meeting hosted by the site's developer, Darren Sloniger, president of Marquette Cos.
Sloniger has the Noble Square land at 1326-1372 W. Walton St. and 933-945 N. Noble St., under contract with the sellers, the neighboring Polish Roman Catholic Union of America at 984 N. Milwaukee Ave.
Marquette Cos. would need a zoning change to build the five-story apartment complex named "Marq at Noble Square."
Designed by Brininstool + Lynch, the building would have a 111-space parking garage, a bike storage room and "bike kitchen" where residents can make repairs to their bikes, according to the site plan.
The building would offer 143 apartments, with the majority — about 70 percent — one bedroom, and the others two-bedrooms, Sloniger said during the gathering in the basement of the Polish Roman Catholic Union building.
Along the Walton Street side of the complex there would be 17 two-bedroom, two-bathroom townhomes.
Those two-story townhomes, also rentals, feature a masonry exterior and were designed to fit into the residential Walton Street. The other three sides of the lot are surrounded by busier commercial streets: Augusta, Noble and the Expressway.
Matt Sullivan, who owns a two-flat building along the 1300 block of Walton Street that would be facing the proposed townhomes, said he is not opposed to development but believes the project is "too dense."
Sloniger described the 49,620-square-foot plot of land as "an extraordinarily large lot for this neighborhood" and emphasized that the mid-rise building was initially pitched last June as a much larger nine-story, 266-unit development.
But that larger plan was ratcheted back after feedback from members of the Eckhart Park Community Council, Ald. Walter Burnett (27th) and the city's Department of Planning, Sloniger said.
After the meeting, Sloniger said, "We feel like this is a product that's uniform with the neighborhood. The lot is more than an acre in size and it can support this development."
Burnett was not at the meeting, nor were representatives from the Polish Roman Catholic Union.
Prior to the gathering, Burnett said he supports ongoing talks between Sloniger and neighbors and he is waiting for feedback from the community before deciding whether to support the development plan.
"The developers need to go to all the community organizations and meet with neighbors directly affected. They can get a feel. I don't need to be at a meeting. If the people who are directly affected got a concern, then I've got a concern," Burnett said.
Burnett said he has only received one email opposed to the project, from a neighbor of the lot. Burnett said that person told him they "love the green space and they walk their dog on the grass."
"It's not a public park; it's private land. [The Polish Roman Catholic Union] can take their grass and turn it around to make it a bigger parking lot if they want. Those kinds of things I can't pay attention to because it's not rational," Burnett said.
Mike Dotson, a zoning committee member of the Eckhart Park Community Council, said that the group has not yet made a decision on whether it will support the zoning change.
Jim Robaczewski of the Polish Roman Catholic Union previously said the sale of the lot was "a long time coming."
"We have been here for 103 years and started buying up property on the block in the 1980s. The initial intent [for the lot] at one time was to build senior housing for our membership but the city blocked that because it would be exclusive to our members only," Robaczewski said.
Currently, the western half of the land is an empty grassy field and the eastern half is a surplus parking lot for visitors to the Polish Museum of America and the Polish Roman Catholic Union.
The proposed apartment building is about a half block north of St. Boniface Church, which was saved from demolition last fall and will be renovated into 15 condos with 24 apartments next door to the church.
A portion of an empty field targeted for development along the 1300 block of West Walton Street. [DNAinfo/Alisa Hauser]
