Developers of the long-debated Webster Square project at Lincoln Park Hospital came one step closer to breaking ground this week when they snagged an approval from the city’s zoning committee.

The committee unanimously approved a zoning change for the project at the behest of Ald. Vi Daley (43rd), who recently announced her support for the redevelopment after a year-and-a-half-long debate between Sandz Development, the firm leading the project, and an active band of residents who have remained in opposition to the plan.

Designs for the proposal envision office space, 152 residential units and a 20,000-square-foot Fresh Market grocery store developed at the site of the former Lincoln Park Hospital, a three-acre campus located at the intersection of Geneva Terrace, Lincoln and Webster Avenues.

The site, which is currently classified solely for medical uses, has been vacant since the institution closed its doors in 2008.

At the hearing held on Tuesday, the authors of the plan promoted Webster Square as an environmentally responsible project that will add parking and green space to the neighborhood while reactivating a dormant property.

“It will return a blighted, vacant hospital to the tax rolls,” said Sandz’s zoning lawyer, Ted Novak.

While supporters have lauded the development as a positive use that could bring commercial stimulation and residential diversity to the area, the retail piece has remained a sticking point for those residents who are against the plan. They argue that the grocery store will create unwanted traffic congestion and could negatively impact the character of the upscale neighborhood.

In the past few months, a number of elements to the plan have been negotiated, including the height and density of the residential portion and design changes to the grocery store’s loading area. But the presence of the retail space has been one aspect on which Sandz has not budged.

“The developers have made concessions, yes, but they have all been minor,” said David Chernoff, president of the Mid-North Association, a resident group that shares purview over the area around the hospital property with the Lincoln Central Association.

Chernoff said that members of his group “strenuously oppose” the plan as it currently stands. He estimated that the presence of a retail piece in the development would add 3,000 cars to the number that already travel through the area on a weekly basis.

“Don’t kid yourself that this isn’t going to create traffic,” said Lincoln Park resident Barbara Schaffer.

LCA President Roger Owens spoke in support of the proposal, as did Lincoln Park Chamber of Commerce CEO Kim Schilf, who suggesting that the development would help arouse “a new customer base [in Lincoln Park], as economic recovery remains slow.”

Schilf commended Daley for her efforts in trying to find a middle ground in the project over the past year.

“As we all know, it hasn’t been an easy task,” she said.

In early March, Daley announced that she would no longer delay the forthcoming redevelopment, citing what she saw as an acceptable majority of residents in support of the plan balanced against those who were against it.

The alderman had previously stated that she would withhold her support for the hospital project, thus keeping it in council limbo, until she was convinced that the plan had garnered significant buy-in from residents in proximity of the site.

A series of referendum items on the ward’s recent municipal ballot bore out that caveat, the alderman said, with 56.7 percent of the 307 voting constituents living near the hospital property casting in opposition of the retail portion of the proposal.

Another survey, based on emails and messages received by Daley’s office, revealed that opposition and support for the project was split by a margin of only 40 households.

Daley will step down from her post in May, at which point the onus of overseeing the redevelopment will be left to her successor. That post will be awarded in a run-off election April 5, and the two candidates vying for the spot — Tim Egan and the ward’s Democratic Committeeman Michele Smith — have expressed differing ideas on what uses should be allowed in the Webster Square project.

At the hearing, Daley once again emphasized her belief that Sandz had met the opposition halfway, stating that the firm’s concessions had made for a better project in the end.

“I would not ask for your support if I did not feel that this was a good plan for this ward,” she said.

The zoning amendment will go before City Council on April 13.

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By Boyee from Mid-North in Lincoln Park
Posted: 03/29/2011 2:04 PM

This is a horrible blow to the Mid-North neighborhood. Webster Ave. will be completely clogged with semis and Geneva Terrace and Cleveland Ave. will be packed with people from outside the neighborhood trying to find parking, taking our 'hood's spots so Lincoln Park can have it's tenth full service grocery supermarket. Mid-North wants the property redeveloped, but not this plan. The high rise with 2 added stories and the retail are out of place in this historic 2-4 story neighborhood!