Zoning application calls for 3-flat
by BRIAN NADIG
A recently filed zoning application calls for the legalization of an existing three-flat at 5636 N. Karlov Ave. in the Brynford Park neighborhood.
In a letter to Alderman Samantha Nugent (39th), project attorney John Pikarski Jr. writes that for decades the building has had three units but that the city considers it a single-family home due to a 1977 construction permit to have it deconverted from a three-flat to a single-family stricture. The permit was never acted upon, and the construction never took place, Pikarski wrote.
The Cook County Assessor’s office lists the 96-year-old frame structure as a multi-family home with three residential units.
Under the proposal, the 4,125-square-foot parcel would be rezoned from RS-3 to the less restrictive RT-3-5. The entire block is zoned RS-3, which is intended primarily for single-family homes and two-flats, and in similar cases the city has upzoned a property to allow for it to be reclassified as a multi-family stricture and then downzoned it back to the previous zoning.
In 2018, the city Department of Buildings issued a citation calling for the removal of all partitions and fixtures, including plumbing and electric, installed in the basement without a permit, according to the department’s Web site.
Meanwhile, an application also was filed to rezone the site of a single-family home at 6341 W. Henderson St. from RS-2 to RT-3-5.
A prior owner constructed a second-story addition to the bungalow without the proper permit, and the zoning change is required so that the house confirms to bulk and density standards, according to the application. The structure would continue to be used as a singe-family home, the application said.
In 2016 a permit for the site was revoked, and a citation was issued calling for a new permit to be obtained, according to the buildings department.
