Mixed-use targeted for Irving-Mason site

by BRIAN NADIG

A retail building at the northeast corner of Irving Park Road and Mason Avenue would be demolished under a proposal to build a three-story structure with eight apartments and first-floor commercial space, according to Alderman Nicholas Sposato (38th).

Sposato will hold a community meeting on the proposal at 6 p.m. Thursday, May 30, at the Merrimac Park fieldhouse, 6343 W. Irving Park Road. In recent years a liquor store and a laundry business occupied the one-story, two-storefront building, whose address is 5920-22 W. Irving Park Road.

Plans call for the property to be rezoned from B3-1 to B2-2, which permits ground-floor residential use. Sposato said that the developer would be willing to install an apartment on the first floor if residents express a preference for an all-residential building and that there would be one parking space for each apartment.

Meanwhile, Sposato said that he has not made a decision on a zoning proposal that calls for the conversion of a basement of a two-flat at 5339 W. Montrose Ave., into an apartment.

Earlier this year, residents expressed concerns about parking in the area and the precedent-setting nature of rezoning the proposed zoning. Spsoato has held two community meetings on the plan.

There have been discussions about a new law that would allow the creation of a garden apartment without a zoning change if the owner secured the proper construction permits and the unit met building code standards, Sposato said.

(photo Rob Mandik)