EDGEWATER — A 20-unit apartment building with a ground-floor restaurant is closer to becoming a reality after city officials approved a zoning change for the proposed development Thursday.
The current structure at 1101-07 W. Granville Ave. is a two-story mixed-use building with vacant studio apartments on top and partially serves as the temporary home to the Chicago Mosaic School on the first floor.
Plans for its redevelopment include razing the current building and building 10 two-bedroom/two-bathroom apartments and 10 one-bedroom/one bathroom units, as well as about 2,000 square feet of ground floor retail space for a restaurant. Two units, or 10 percent of the apartments, would be set aside as affordable housing, developers said last year.
While normally residential developments are required to provide at least one parking spot per unit, because the building is so close to the Granville "L" station, it is exempt from the requirement under the city's Transit-Oriented Development ordinance.
Owners Rae Ann and Bob Cecrle, long time residents and landlords, originally pitched six on-site parking spaces with 10 available in a nearby lot, however an attorney representing the couple at Thursday's Committee on Zoning, Landmark and Building Standards meeting said there would now only be one parking spot at the building.
The committee approved the parking space.
Attorney Thomas Moore also noted a basement pub that was part of the development's original plans would be nixed because of the property's close proximity to Lake Michigan — meaning there could be too much water in the basement to support a business.
Ald. Tom Tunney (44th), who owns an Ann Sather restaurant on Granville, wished the project luck during the meeting.
Plans for the building now advance on for a vote by the full City Council on Oct. 11.
