Ald. Vi Daley (43rd) announced this week that she will give her blessing to the developers of the hotly contested Lincoln Park Hospital redevelopment.

In a statement released on Tuesday, Daley said that she would no longer delay the forthcoming redevelopment, which envisions office space, residential units and a 20,000-square-foot Fresh Market grocery store developed at the three-acre hospital campus, saying that she planned to vote to approve the project and hoped to have an “iron-clad community agreement in place” when the plan goes before City Council later this month.

Daley — who is retiring from her post this May after serving in the ward since 1999 — has spent over a year looking for a middle ground on what residents want at the site.

Negotiations thus far have resulted in a number of planning concessions made by Sandz Development, the firm charged with managing the project by owners Michael Supera and Richard Zisook. The partners are seeking a zoning change for the shuttered hospital, at 550 W. Webster, which they won in a foreclosure lawsuit in 2009.

In an interview with Skyline before she made the announcement, Daley said that she would like to see the ambitious project through City Council before she steps down.

“I think it’s my duty to move ahead on this,” she said.

But the North Side alderman had previously sworn to hold the proposal in council pending significant resident buy-in, which seems increasingly unrealistic as her retirement approaches.

A series of referendum items on the ward’s recent municipal ballot show that residents in immediate proximity to the hospital property are still split on whether retail should be allowed in the redevelopment, with 56.7 percent of the 307 constituents voting against that part of the proposal.

In two other ballot items, 71.2 percent of voting residents in the precinct — bordered by Geneva Terrace and Belden, Cleveland and Armitage Avenues — cast against the inclusion of truck loading docks accessed from Webster Avenue, a two-way street that divides the hospital properties, and 76 percent said that the city shouldn’t let Sandz build docks that lack an off-street truck turnaround and a waiting area adjacent to the loading zone.

Daley pointed to the margin that made up the opposition’s majority — “a difference of just 41 votes,” she wrote — as reason for her decision to move forward on the approval.

Sandz has flexed on several points of the plan, such as decreasing height and density in the residential portion and withdrawing original designs to include a Walgreens pharmacy store in the redevelopment. But the retail space, slated for the hospital’s existing parking garage and expected to be a major factor in the funding of the project, has remained a constant.

The firm’s own research states that 51 percent of the residents living within 250 feet of the site — that’s out of 265 units, by their count — are in support of the grocery store, while 22 percent are opposed and 27 percent are unconfirmed. That data coincides with statistics generated by the alderman’s office, said Chuck Eastwood, Daley’s chief of staff.

In her statement, Daley said that she would ask representatives of Lincoln Park’s various neighborhood associations to serve on a small committee to address items in the project that remain unresolved.

In December, the alderman denied her support for the redevelopment before the Chicago Plan Commission, stating that opposition to the proposal was still too prevalent from neighbors who abhorred — among other things — the plans for a grocery store at the site. The application passed, and Daley vowed to vote down the plan in the city’s Zoning Committee, sending Sandz back to the drafting board.

The project sailed through the commission again and was scheduled to go back before the committee last week, but the hearing was postponed after Daley asked the developers to present some recent revisions at a community forum before heading back to city hall.

Held at Lincoln Park High School on Monday night, the meeting drew about half of the some 300 or so residents who filled the auditorium last year when Daley held the first public meeting on the project.

The development team presented the neighbors with a revised layout for the store’s loading area, a change that reflected criticisms over a design in the original plan and subsequently spoke to the third referendum question.

In the public comment period, opposing residents and community members restated their concerns over the added traffic congestion that the store could potentially attract, while supporters again reminded the audience that anything is better than an empty hospital building.

Toward the end of the night, long-time Lincoln Park resident Jerry Wexler closed his testimony against the plan’s current iteration by giving Daley some unsolicited advice: do the honorable thing, he said, and take a pass.

“This is no longer your issue, it’s your successor’s issue,” said Wexler.

With the project on its way to full council approval, further deliberations on the redevelopment will be left to the purview of Daley’s heir.

As of last week’s election, two candidates now stand to fill that position: Michele Smith, the ward’s current democratic committeeman, and Tim Egan, a hospital executive and second-time contender who will face Smith in a runoff ballot for the aldermanic post on April 5.

On the afternoon before the community forum, Egan said that, if chosen to take on the task, he would see that the planning for the redevelopment be kept an open process. He commended Daley for her dedication to the project to date.

Despite being somewhat outspoken on the issues of this redevelopment and the one currently on deck at Children’s Memorial Hospital, Smith said on Monday that she would be sure to respect Daley’s judgment on the former if elected to replace her.

Smith and Daley have butted heads before; the two ran aggressive campaigns against each other in a runoff ballot in 2007 — a fight that Daley narrowly won. But though she would have been hard pressed to approve the plan in its current form, Smith had no ill words against the alderman’s handling of the project.

“I’m not going to criticize Daley,” Smith said. “She has been dealing with a very difficult situation.”

The Zoning Committee will meet to vote on the Lincoln Park Hospital application on March 22.

---

By ChicagoPJS from Lincoln Park
Posted: 03/10/2011 3:48 PM

Right, "all" they wanted was to eliminate the retail - basically 50% of the project.

---

By Boyee from Mid-North in Lincoln Park
Posted: 03/09/2011 0:45 AM

All the neighbors wanted was the retail with is loading dock removed as well as keeping the tower at 10 stories. The developers wouldn't even meet the Mid-North neighbors even halfway. All of the "concessions" they gave were already won through the community agreements made in the 70's. The entire community would support the project if these two changes were made.

---

By RAL from Lincoln Park
Posted: 03/03/2011 12:03 PM

There are no easy answers for this dilemma, but an indefinitely vacant hospital campus is a mortal threat to property values and public safety. Both sides will obviously have to give to make this work.