Zoning advisory committee to discuss storage site plan
by BRIAN NADIG
The 41st Ward Zoning Advisory Committee will resume discussions this month on a planned storage facility in Norwood Park, but a proposal for an animal hospital is not moving forward.
The committee will meet at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, July 19, at the Olympia Park fieldhouse, 6566 N. Avondale Ave. The committee usually meets the first Wednesday of the month, but the July meeting was delayed due to the Independence Day holiday.
Alderman Anthony Napolitano’s chief of staff Chris Vittorio said that the applicant for a zoning change at 5990 N. Northwest Hwy. has decided not to pursue the project. Plans had called for Abbell Animal Hospital, 6032 N. Northwest Hwy., to relocate to the site, and several committee members had voiced support for the proposal.
Meanwhile, the committee will hold its second meeting on a plan to build a three-story storage facility at 6250 N. Northwest Hwy., where a micro-threading business once operated.
At the committee’s June 7 meeting area home owners expressed concern about the exterior design of the building, with one resident calling it a "concrete vault."
Under the site’s existing zoning, an 88,000-square-foot warehouse would be created by carving out a basement and adding a second floor and a partial third floor to the existing building. An alternative plan calls for the building’s demolition and the construction of a new three-story structure, but that proposal requires a zoning change.
Project officials said that they are prepared to proceed with either plan but that the rezoning would allow for a nicer looking building.
