THE JOURNAL & TOPICS NEWSPAPERS | WEDNESDAY, JUNE 14, 2006
Condo Plan Barely Passes Zoning
By DWIGHT ESAU
Journal Reporter
It seemed to be excruciatingly painful, but very late Monday night (June 12) the City of Park Ridge tentatively, and barely, gave birth to the Heinz condo project at Greenwood and Northwest Highway.
It was a 4-3 vote by a depleted Planning and Zoning Commission.
Now, it's up to the City Council to cut the umbilical cord on this project and turn it loose on its own, after a long, difficult, and controversial two-year gestation period.
The final approving vote by aldermen is tentatively scheduled to occur on July 17. Based on some conversations by the Journal with aldermen, that vote could be as close as the commission's was this week. Two aldermen - Don Crampton and Rex Parker, who attended Monday's hearings, said they favored the variation.
The advisory vote came at 11:30 p.m. Monday, after nearly four hours of testimony from about 15 residents, plus architects and other experts speaking for Park Ridge developer John Heinz.
Heinz asked for a special use variation to increase the number of units in his two-building condo project from 50 to 58, and to have 87 parking spaces on the property instead of the normally required 111.
Voting yes were commission members Cynthia Funkhouser, Bernie Bono, Tom Provencher, and Anita Rifkind. Voting no were Alberto Marr, Dave Schmidt, and R. Jackson Kinnel.
Commissioner Aurora Abella-Austriaco was present but could not vote by commission rules because she had not reviewed the transcript of the commission's May 22 hearing on the issue. She said, however, that she would have voted no if she had been allowed to participate in the decision.
Commission chairman Philip Mitchell was absent.
This was the fifth public hearing on this project in the last 18 months. Heinz proposes to build 58 luxury condo units in two buildings at the southeast corner of Greenwood Road and Northwest Highway, with the units selling from $400,000 to $1.2 million each. He secured city approval for a 50-unit project late in 2005, but came back two months ago to ask for 58 units, saying he had consulted with real estate development experts and a bank, whom he said told him the project contained too many larger and more expensive units, and was not economically viable. He now wants to reconfigure his floor plans and make more smaller and less expensive units.
In return, he offered to reduce his building's footprint (size) by five feet, plant some extra landscaping at the corner of the two roads, eliminate the one-story connector structure between the two four-story buildings, add 7 additional parking spaces, and eliminate the second floor of a connector building at the rear o of the complex.
He even offered to let the city's fire department use several vacant homes he owns next door to the project for training purposes. None of the commissioners indicated they liked that idea, however.
Most of the residents who live near the project and who spoke Monday objected to it. While much of the dialog centered on how profitable the project would be with this or that density, the basic issue, commissioners said, was the density itself, and whether a 58-unit project was the best thing for the city.
The four-member majority decided that it was, and the minority group said the density would set an undesirable precedent for future zoning variations.
Heinz himself said his bank told him that they would "be reluctant to move forward" with financing of the $34 million project if the zoning variation is not approved. Several residents reacted to this by saying it wasn't the city's business to compensate the developer for a mistake or to guarantee his project's profitability.
"Where does the responsibility of planning and zoning commission end and the risk the developer is taking begin?" said Ken Balaskovitz. "His economic viability for this project is not your concern. Is he going to come back to you in the future with another request to guarantee his viability? Is someone else going to do that? I request that you deny this on that basis." He also said, as he has on several previous occasions, that more study of area traffic needs to be done in the area.
Without resolving the matter, resident Charles Baldacchino, some commissioners, and Heinz attorney John Owens disagreed on whether the city's zoning code permits officials to grant density variations for residential buildings. Baldacchino says it does not, while commissioners and Owens said it does.
Another resident said the southeast corner of
Greenwood and Northwest Highway is dangerous and the scene of two serious accidents in recent weeks. "It's a hazardous area, I don't think any plantings or benches for residents to sit on should be put there," he said.
Another resident said, "If the developer allows visitors and vendors access to the building along the south side of Northwest Highway, people will park on the north side of the street and risk their lives to jaywalk to the building, rather than looking around for the parking lot in back. That's unsafe. That needs to be addressed."
Several commissioners said they agreed with that and they indicated they would ask staff to investigate that possibility.
Pat Livensparger said the request should be denied because of the precedent it will set. "If you let this through, you will not be able to put this rabbit back into the hat. The amenities he is offering aren't worth the trouble. You need to let people know this isn't acceptable according to our zoning ordinance."
Resident William Glennan, a strong critic of the project, said he has checked on other condo projects in the area, including the PRC Partners one now being planned in Uptown, and has found that large units are selling well. "I don't think he (Heinz)( needs the extra eight units, he will sell what he has approval for now easily."
Glennan also said Heinz has over-valued his land costs to further justify the density request. "He is saying his land is worth more than the land in Uptown, and that's not right."
Glennan also repeated his statement that Heinz' petition and information provided to the city is "full of inaccuracies."
Speaking in favor of the project, another resident said, "What do the objectors want from Mr. Heinz? He has improved his project dramatically at the request of the city. There is too much negativism here. You (commission) should decide on the basis of what's best for the city. This is a fine project."