24-unit apartment building planned for site across from Schurz HS
by BRIAN NADIG
A four-story building with storefronts and 24 apartments is one of two recent development proposals for the 3600 block of North Milwaukee Avenue.
A zoning application could be filed as early as this month for a mixed-use proposal on the site of a car repair shop at 3660 N. Milwaukee Ave., said project attorney John Pikarski Jr. The site’s existing M1-1 zoning is intended primarily for industrial purposes.
The approximately 20,000-square-foot parcel is located across from Schurz High School, 3601 N. Milwaukee Ave., which has a city landmark status.
“It will be a first-class building,” Pikarski said of the proposed masonry building. “It will be complementary to Schurz, which is of esteemed architectural importance.”
The building would include 4,500 square feet of ground-floor commercial space and 26 interior parking spaces, with six outdoor spaces in the rear of the site. Access to the interior parking would be from an existing driveway along the south side of the property, and vehicles would exit the garage via an alley to the north, Pikarski said.
The apartments would include two bedrooms and balconies, and the rents would be market-rate, except for three affordable units as required by city ordinance, Pikarski said. The building would include an elevator.
Some modifications to the project were made at the recommendation of members of the Old Irving Park Association, Pikarski said.
Also in the block, a daycare center is planned for the first floor of a two-story building at 3696 N. Milwaukee Ave., where an engine rebuilding shop is located.
A community meeting was held on the project last month. One or two apartments are planned for the second floor, according to a resident who was at the meeting.
The building is located in front of a 48-unit single-family home development which is under construction on the former site of the Riddell football helmet company, 3670 N. Milwaukee Ave.
Also on the Northwest Side, the 41st Ward Zoning Advisory Committee will hold a meeting at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, June 7, at the Olympia Park fieldhouse, 6566 N. Avondale Ave. Proposals for a self-storage facility at 6250 N. Northwest Highway and a veterinary clinic at 5995 N. Northwest Highway are on the meeting’s agenda.
