Agenda - Planning Commission - 06/04/2009

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BLOOMINGDALE CORRIDOR The Bloomingdale Industrial Corridor followed a railroad line originally constructed by the Chicago and Pacific Railroad Company and then operated by the Chicago, Milwauk!,e, and St. Paul Railway. The land designatedmanufactur- ingwas.a linear strip only sufficient to accom- Much of the rezoningalongthe Blooming- dale co'rridor was to the city's mid-density zi:>ning districts (R-4 and R-S zoning categories). The R-S category, at the time, allowed five-story buildings and these buildings could achieve densities of 40 to So units to the acre. The R-4 designation allowed three-flats but also at- modate small industrial operations that could take advantage ofthe rail line. The strip was an insufficient land area for modem manufacturing. In 2004, a Department of Planning and Develop- ment study reported thpt halfofthe 82 acres of industrial zoned property along the corridor had been rezoned since 1990. The rezonings allowed loft conversions and new housing construction of more than 1,000 new dwelling units. lowed town house developments at densities of 2S to 30 units per acre. REDEVELOPMENT OFTHE CITY'S COMMERCIAL STRIPS Probably the most successful and widely ac- cepted locations for added residential density in Chicago are the city's declining retail strips. By the 1990S there was wide recognition that many of the city's neighborhood retail strips would never come back. Small storefronts lacked parking, which was 13 barrier for success outside of the city's densest and most pedes- trian-friendly neighborhoods. In the 1990s, the Chicago Department of Planning and Development estimated that there were over 700 miles of commercial and retail zoning along the city's major streets, which are at mile and half-mile intervals throughoutthe grid. An early 1990S survey of these retail strips by a local planning firm (Trkla, Pettigrew, Allen & Payne, which is now part of the URS Corpora- tion) found that almost 70 percent of the prop- erties on the city's south and southwest sides were vacant or abandoned. The situation was only marginally better on the city's north and northwest sides. Due to demographic shifts the city's neighborhood retail strips had fallen on hard times in the 1960s and 1970S. These problems were exacerbated by the construction of doz- ens of regional malls in Chicago suburbs in the 1980s and 1990s. Establishing housing on the retail strips had the following advantages: . New residential units added potential shop- pers tothe strip. . Many of the retail strips were served by mul- tiple bus routes. . Many of these retail strips were underuti- lized-characterized by one- and two-story buildings that were smaller than buildings in the adjoining residential areas. The projects that filled in vacant lots aiid that removed vacant or sometimes dangerous commercial structures were welcomed by the adjoining neighborhoods. For example, on Halsted Street in the Lakeview neighborhood ZONING PRACTICE '5.09 AMERICAN PLANNING ASSOCIATION Ipage 3 85