On June 8th John Knox posted a comment to this account of the Waveland Partners’ presentation from the previous evening. John correctly pointed out that, based upon the materials available on www.theResidencesAtEdgewaterPark.com, a website Waveland Partners maintains for marketing the Edgewater Medical Center redevelopment, the amount of property that was being offered to the city by Dexia / Edgewater Medical Center Bankruptcy Estate was 7% of the developable land, not 40%, as had been explained during the June 7th community meeting.
Before Thursday evening the percentage of the developable site that Dexia / Edgewater Medical Center Bankruptcy Estate had been proposing to set aside for a mini-park–a playground–was 0.2 acres (8787 s.f or 7% of the developable site). So, although the materials John had used were no longer current (as of writing, Waveland Partners has not placed the materials from the June 7th presentation online), he was on to something. Using the same materials, but basing my calculations on the drawings in them, I quickly came up with a smaller percentage, 26%.
My next steps were (1) to update the account of the evening and (2) to inquire with Waveland Partners’. While Waveland Partners checked its numbers, I checked mine, yet again, using the city’s GIS website. This time the percentage I came up with was still less than 40%, but, frustratingly, it was also greater than 26%. I updated the account.
A short while later Waveland Partners sent me its revised percentage. It matched the percentage I had just worked out using the city’s GIS website. Since then I have gone back to the materials that John Knox and I initially used to check Waveland Partners’ Thursday evening number and I have confirmed it (When I first used the drawings in them, I’d made an error in calculating the size of the land Dexia / Edgewater Medical Center Bankruptcy Estate is proposing to donate.)
Please note, my calculations are not based upon supporting materials for the June 7th offer, so they maybe revised, yet again, once Waveland Partners makes such materials available. For any confusion resulting from the two previous accounts of Thursday evening’s presentation, I apologize.
An up-to-date version of Friday’s early morning account of the previous evening’s presentation is below.
Waveland Partner’s Ed Polich surprised an almost full house at the St Gregory Bingo Hall last night when he set forth a new Dexia / Edgewater Medical Center Bankruptcy Estate plan for the redevelopment of the Edgewater Medical Center:
- 33% to 34% of the site would be donated to the city for a true neighborhood park,
- the city would approve the construction of a 13 story mixed-use building east of the north south alley along Ashland Ave, and
- the city would approve the construction of 19 single-family residences on Edgewater Ave where the EMC parking garage currently stands.
As Alderman O’Connor stressed, this is not a done deal. It is just an offer. All parties need time to evaluate it and its impact on the Andersonville/West Edgewater community before anything productive can be said about it.
This can be said, though, before last night the offer was 7% of the developable site for a mini-park located at the corner of Hermitage and Edgewater in exchange for a building complex that consisted of a 9 story mixed use building east of the north south alley and two 7 story residential buildings west of the north south alley, and 16 single-family residences along Edgewater Ave, but now the offer is somewhere between 33% and 34% of the developable site in exchange for a 13 story mixed-use building and 19 single-family residences.
At 0.93 acres the proposed site, which lies on a parcel bounded to the east by the north south alley and to the west by the eastern most residence on Hollywood Ave and the eastern most residence proposed for Edgewater Ave, would need an additional 0.47 acres before it would be equivalent to the Mary Bartelme Park, which has 1.4 acres.
Alderman O’Connor MC’d the meeting, keeping it informative and moving along (it did run long, though no one was complaining).
We, the Andersonville/West Edgewater Community and the city of Chicago, would not be where we are, at this moment, were it not for all of your support. Thank you.
With much still remaining to be done, we need to stay focused.
More information will follow in the coming weeks.
As we proceed, let’s strive to make this the best planed development the city has ever seen.
As the treasurer of Friends of West Edgewater park, obviously I’m all for a park but really, the *ideal* solution is a structure that serves the comity (not residential, maybe incorporating retail) from the alley to Ashland, then the rest of it a park. No SFHs, just a park from the alley to Hermitage.
One thing that bothered me at the meeting last night was when the Alderman said “even if the money was there, the city doesn’t think it’s a good place for a park”. That bothered me. I tried to raise my hand for clarification – like if we got the money ourselves, would they fight us anyway? – but he wouldn’t call on me.
As I said, the ideal situation is to have some kind of community-serving structure (NOT residential) between the alley & Ashland and have everything west of the alley green space. I wish there could be an arts school or a library or something there. **DREAMS**
Something this neighborhood really needs is a play place, like Cafe Jumping Bean etc. Having that on Ashland right there would be a real dream come true. I know people interested in starting that type of business (maybe even me!).
In short, this Waveland plan isn’t close to what the neighborhood wants.
* “comity” = “community – sorry for the strange typo!
The park as proposed does not appear to be 40% of the site. Using the plans posted on the Waveland site: the site is 117,085 square feet. (page 1 Table:
Property Building and Area Summary. the park is listed at 9,340 square feet or 7.9% of the site. Looking at page 2 of the plans the park is 81’x108.6′ or 8,795 square feet or 7.5% of the site. Either number is much less than 40% – maybe 40% is what Waveland really wants to offer. Add the single family site to the park and the total of 52,787 square feet would be 45% of the site. This doesn’t take the developed parking lots into consideration. I note with interest that the Alderman didn’t bring the Friends of the Park or the WEAR board to a meeting with the Park District to hear about there dislike of the EMC site.
John, thank you for pointing this out. I checked my notes and indeed have Waveland Partners stating that the donated area is close to an acre. Interesting theory regarding how much land Dexia intends to donate or is willing to donate.
I was told an acre as well. That would be 40%. They have also moved the park location to be in between the condo building and the single-family homes. At that spot, the current hospital buildings span the E-W alley that runs between Edgewater and Hollywood. Would that alley get consumed by the park, or, would it cut through the middle of the park? Also, what happens if the community, ultimately, agrees with this plan (or a mild evolution of this plan)? Does the park start getting built immediately or do we all still have to wait for the property to be sold first?
Dear Jeremy,
Thank you for sharing your account. I contacted Waveland Partners about the question. Waveland and I independently checked the math and independently came back with the same answer. Depending upon how you do the math, the actual number is between 33% and 35%. I will post an updated summary of the evening either this weekend or early next week.
Respectfully,
Andrew Strand
Thanks Andrew for bird dogging this. It does seem that Waveland modified its proposal before the meeting but after they posted that set of plans and I’m glad to hear that they are talking a larger park site. It seems like FOWEP is headed for pushing for eliminating the single families and dedicating everything behind the building facing Ashland be park. There might be a compromise that would enhance the park. An architect friend sketched some ideas and the first thing he came up with when he looked at the site was a row of nontraditional townhouses facing Edgewater Avenue but with the park in between their front doors and Edgewater Avenue. They would be narrow with no yards of their own, although perhaps some decks. Vechical access would be off the alley in to garagespace on the first floors. They might be wider than a traditional lot and/or be three stories. They would enhance the park with north facting windows, a sort of “eyes on the street” crime control and would create a natural park constituency. They would also give the developer 9 to 12 attractive park side units while making a larger park site.
My biggest concern is the fact there is no real developer involved in the process. After everyone’s approved, the TIFF dollars committed, the Zoning changes made, who’s to say that a developer appears and says “the only this goes forward is I can lose the Park”.
[…] in “active development” (here are two links to pieces about the current proposal: Dexia Makes New Offer and A Revised Proposal for the Edgewater Medical Center Site). Here is the link to the audio of […]