Prairie Ave. group fights X/O luxury highrise plan
By Angie Timmons
Despite
her early support, 2nd Ward Alderman Madeline Haithcock said she will stall
permits for the X/O development planned for the Prairie Avenue District,
adding she “didn’t know that people around the area wouldn’t want it.”
Haithcock said her initial support had stemmed from the green light the Greater South Loop Association (GSLA) and the Near South Planning Board (NSPB) gave X/O last year.
Envisioned as a pair of dancers against the Chicago skyline by their architect, the X/O luxury highrise towers are causing a stir among neighborhood residents represented by Prairie District Neighborhood Alliance (PDNA), a new group formed in part to fight the development. The PDNA did not exist when X/O developers went calling on area community groups last year.
Arguing X/O does not fit the character of the Prairie District and that public notice was not given before public meetings, the PDNA has filed a challenge of project approval with the City’s Department of Planning and Development. Also, the group alleges X/O developers Kargil and Frankel & Giles violated zoning and municipal codes.
“X/O is forever going to change Prairie Avenue,” said Tina Feldstein, PDNA president, at the group’s March 5 meeting. “Five hundred units of glass and steel do not reflect this neighborhood. You’ve got to let the City know you don’t want those towers on that corner.”
The City’s plan for the Near South community contains clear guidelines for development within the Prairie District. Calling for low-rise structures and “building materials and styles that are compatible with the historic character of Prairie Avenue,” the guidelines suggest building heights along Prairie Avenue (where X/O would be located at 1700 S. Prairie Ave., though set back behind ten townhouses) should be 60 feet, with heights up to 250 feet allowed elsewhere in the district. At 45 stories, the tallest of X/O’s two towers would come in at 460 feet; the second tower would have 33 stories.
Though X/O does not appear to reflect what City guidelines envision for the Prairie District, Bob McKenna from the Department of Planning and Development told the PDNA members at last month’s meeting that the project fits within the City’s zoning code and that the developers “have ownership rights and development rights” to the land, regardless of how one might feel about the design. He noted Haithcock had said early on that the towers did not fit with the neighborhood.
People living in the Prairie District are scratching their heads over the plans vs. zoning code question. Jeffery Ayersman, PDNA treasurer, said, “The City tells us initially that the plans themselves are optional, yet the Zoning Ordinance, which is the law, uses terminology that ‘plan developments must be consistent with plans adopted by the plan commission…,’ with the definition of must being mandatory. So how can a plan be optional if the Zoning Ordinance says it is mandatory? It defies logic of normal people.”
Controversy has not cooled early sales at X/O. Brian Giles, senior vice president with Kargil Development, said that as of late March 140 units worth $70 million had been sold. “People recognize the quality of the development,” Giles said, and X/O’s modern design is “architecturally significant.”
Giles would not comment on Haithcock’s pledge to stall X/O’s building permits but later said that his company is not at the point where it would be securing them. PDNA concerns about issues such as inadequate sewer infrastructure for such a large project, to Giles, “doesn’t hold any water, no pun intended,” because large developments anywhere in the city can require sewer upgrades. X/O is an approved planned development, and like Haithcock, Giles pointed to GSLA and NSPB support as evidence his company gained the requisite public support. He added his company will break ground later this year.
PDNA’s Feldstein called those groups’ backing into question at the early March meeting, saying, “the community support is steeped in conflict,” especially with X/O developer Keith Giles sitting on the NSPB board.
Bob Fioretti, Haithcock’s challenger in the April 17 runoff election, said Haithcock “has pitted community members against community members,” in the wake of X/O. If he were Alderman no problem would have arisen because he would have kept the public informed along with way. “She’s the Alderman; she can do a lot,” Fioretti said, when asked if X/O as an approved planned development was too far along for anyone to force the project back to the drawing board.
Haithcock felt Prairie Avenue residents’ ire at the March PDNA meeting, especially when one resident, feeling duped by the situation, called her on her flip-flop regarding X/O. “Coming here doesn’t do me any good,” Haithcock said, “If you don’t want to work with me, just say so.” Haithcock also maintained she was listening to neighbors now and that the past does not matter.
“We recognize that this is not what [Prairie Avenue residents] wanted,” Haithcock told the Gazette. “We’ll take another look at it and we’ll see.” Haithcock vowed to bring both sides together so everyone could work toward a resolution, noting, “Their opinion matters.”
