Zoning changes requested for NW Side developments

by BRIAN NADIG Applications for zoning changes have been filed for a new restaurant at Six Corners, a solar energy company in Jefferson Park, a charter school at Belmont and Kolmar avenues and a shopping center at Belmont and Normandy avenues. The restaurant is planned for a 2,800-square-foot vacant storefront in a two-story brick building at 4038 N. Milwaukee Ave. A second-floor residential unit would remain. The project requires the site to be rezoned from B1-1 to B3-1 to allow a bar in the restaurant, which is owned by the operator of the Portage restaurant, 3938 N. Central Ave. Under the existing zoning, the liquor could only be served in the dining room. A frozen yogurt shop and a dance studio are planned for other storefronts in the block. Alderman John Arena (45th) will hold a community meeting on the restaurant plan at 8 p.m. Monday, July 22, at the Copernicus Center, 5216 W. Lawrence Ave. That meeting will follow a community meeting at 7 p.m. on a proposal to add second and third floors to a vacant industrial building near Wilson and Lamon avenues, across from the Mayfair Pumping Station, 4850 W. Wilson Ave. The new occupant of the industrial building, which has been vacant for several years, would be Chicago-based Earth Wind and Solar Energy, which designs and installs renewable energy systems, Arena’s director of economic development Anthony Alfano said. The site includes a parking lot. Intrinsic Charter High School is planned for a former lumber yard at 4540 W. Belmont Ave. The 106,334-square-foot site would be rezoned from B1-1 to a planned development, which creates a customized zoning for the parcel. A new administrative building would be constructed on the site, and some of the existing buildings would be reused for classrooms. Plans call for 27 parking spaces and for the building not to exceed 40 feet in height. An unoccupied banquet hall at 6701 W. Belmont Ave. would be rezoned from M1-1to B3-1 to allow the conversion of the building to a shopping center with two or three tenants. The center would have 51 parking spaces. Two 37-foot-tall buildings, one with 18 dwelling units and the other with 12 units, would be built on a 34,746-square-foot vacant lot at 2917-39 N. Central Ave. under a proposal to rezone the property from B3-1 to B2-2, which permits ground-floor residential units in a business district. The buildings would have 30 parking spaces. The site of a former gas station at 8353-55 W. Irving Park Road would be downzoned from B3-1 to RS2, which is intended for single-family homes, under a zoning application filed by Alderman Timothy Cullerton (38th). The City Council Committee on Zoning, Landmarks and Building Standards is scheduled to hold a hearing on all of the proposals except the industrial expansion on Wilson its at its meeting at 11 a.m. Tuesday, July 23, in the Council Chamber at City Hall, 121 N. LaSalle St.