Community meetings set on development projects in 39th and 41st wards
by BRIAN NADIG
Community meetings will be held this month on proposals for a new gas station and a four-story, mixed use building in the 39th Ward and a rowhouse development in the 41st Ward.
The Forest Glen Community Club will meet at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 17, at the Congregational Church of Forest Glen, 5400 N. Lawler Ave., and hear a presentation on a proposal to build a gas station, a 7-Eleven convenience store and a car wash at the southeast corner of Foster and Elston avenues. The existing car repair shop would be demolished.
A portion of the project would be built on a grassy lot located behind the existing repair shop. The developer plans to acquire the lot from Trinity Lutheran Church, 5106 N. LaCrosse Ave.
Alderman Samantha Nugent (39th) said that she has not decided whether to support the proposal. “I’m waiting to hear what the community feels,” she said. “It’d be nice to have something nice that the community wants and would use.”
The store would sell craft coffees, fresh fruit and sandwiches, Nugent said. The city does not allow liquor sales at stores that are part of gas stations.
The project would require the Zoning Board of Appeals to issue a special use for the gas station.
Also in the ward, the Hollywood-North Park Community Association will meet at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 4, to discuss a plan to rezone the site of storefronts at 3244-50 W. Bryn Mawr Ave. The meeting will be held at Peterson School, 5510 N. Christiana Ave.
A portion of the storefronts would be incorporated into a new four-story building with retail space on the ground floor and 30 apartments on the upper three floors, according to Nugent’s office. The apartments would consist of a mix of one- and two-bedroom units, and there would be 30 parking spaces in the rear of the parcel.
Nugent said that the community would like to see the “peaks” and other decorative elements on the existing storefronts remain. This is the third development proposal for the approximately 12,200-square-foot site.
Also, the 41st Ward Zoning Advisory Committee will meet at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 4, at the Olympia Park fieldhouse, 6566 N. Avondale Ave. The only agenda item is a proposal to build eight, four-story rowhouses on the site of an underutilized parking lot at 5005 N. Harlem Ave.
At a previous meeting, some committee members raised concerns that the lone driveway for the development would not be large enough to accommodate trucks and that an all-residential project may not fit in with the primarily commercial nature of Harlem Avenue.
