Some South Loop residents want Ald. Robert Fioretti (2nd) to clarify how community members are to weigh in on development pitches in the neighborhood, following the sudden passage last week of a zoning change needed for a student dorm near Printers Row.

Chicago aldermen have broad control over development in their wards. Projects rarely move through the city’s land-use approval process without sign-off by a ward’s representative in city council, and so aldermen often extend constituents some form of review of new developments.

The pace and review of development was a key South Loop election issue during Fioretti’s successful campaign in 2007 to unseat former 2nd Ward alderman Madeline Haithcock.

But Dennis McClendon, president of the community group South Loop Neighbors, said Fioretti’s approach to new development remained “extremely mysterious” to him.

“I don’t want to suggest there’s anything untoward going on,” McClendon said. “But we need to know before the real estate market revives how projects are voted up or down in his office.”

A case in point is the new zoning for Buckingham Phase II. On Feb. 25, the council’s zoning committee gave its seal of approval to a new zoning classification the development team needs for the project, a 37-story student dorm containing 1,249 beds at the southeast corner of Wabash and Van Buren. The full city council must still confirm the change.

Last June, Fioretti objected to the proposed new zoning at a plan commission hearing, noting that none of the downtown universities had agreed to send their students to live there. Plan commission members passed the project anyway, and Fioretti promised to stall the dorm in the city council’s zoning committee.

That’s where it languished for months, stuck on the committee’s deferred agenda, before last week’s go-ahead.

The developers still haven’t secured a lease from any of the Loop and South Loop-based schools, Gerry Curciarello, part of the group backing the building, confirmed.

What had changed, according to a Feb. 19 letter Fioretti sent to zoning committee chair Ald. Danny Solis (25th), was the builder’s assurances that they would not start construction until a lease with a school was in place.

“They have pledged to build a student residence building when a university tenant or tenants is secured with appropriate programming, management and security,” the letter reads. Curciarello said construction was a long way off any way, given ongoing economic conditions.

“The financial markets have not improved,” he said. “It’ll be a couple of years before we start anything at this point.”

McClendon argued review of the project was inadequate. The project should have been presented to South Loop residents even before the developers began navigating the city’s land-use approval process, he said.

“There always should be serious community review before the plan commission approves it, much less the zoning committee,” McClendon said. “The zoning committee is the last rubber stamp.”

Much of the debate about new projects, McClendon noted, will be steered by the city’s zoning ordinance. But residents can still offer relevant input about urban design issues especially — curb cuts, retail placement and the like, he said.

Buckingham II did get a hearing in certain venues. McClendon attended a session about it organized by a committee of the Near South Planning Board, a business advocacy group that is supporting the project.

Others were more in the dark. Enrique Perez, who lives in Printers Row, declined to comment on Buckingham Phase II because, he said, “it wasn’t brought out to the community.”

“It looks like it sat out there for a half a year, and nothing happened,” he said. “And then, boom, there’s an aldermanic support letter.”

Adding to the confusion, both McClendon and Perez said in separate interviews, is the role of the 2nd Ward Citizens Advisory Committee, a group Fioretti established to advise him on development pitches. In his letter about the Buckingham II zoning change to Solis, the alderman cited a presentation the developers gave to members of that committee.

Perez defended city council members’ right to form such advisory panels but said they weren’t sufficient to constitute community review. McClendon said he did not know any of the committee’s members, and where and when they met, nor the criteria the group is using to consider developments.

A list of its members was unavailable from Fioretti’s office as of Chicago Journal’s deadline Wednesday. The group has had little public profile other than a story published about it in this newspaper in 2008.

Hanah Jubeh, who headed Fioretti’s review process until late last summer, recalled the basic revieworder the office had established. Developers would first submit a summary of their proposed project and then meet with the alderman. Fioretti would then send the project to the advisory committee, she said. Later the office would try to partner with an existing organization to debut the project at a meeting open to the public.

Jubeh didn’t have details of the committee’s current operations, but noted a turnover in its membership was in the works when she stepped aside from her position in Fioretti’s office.

Fioretti defended the Buckingham II zoning change, reiterating the point that the developer wouldn’t build until they had a tenant. They still have to pull building permits as well, he noted.

“If it went through zoning it had to go through the CAC,” he said.

“We have worked through an extensive process, it’s very difficult given the aspect of how this ward works,” Fioretti said.

Contact: mmaidenberg@chicagojournal.com

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By apartment living from South Loop
Posted: 03/06/2010 10:01 PM

why would anyone be against this? new dorms means the colleges downtown are expanding, which is always a good thing. people who dont like construction and tall buildings and traffic etc. really need to step back a bit and realize they live downtown. dont like it? thats why naperville exists. enjoy mowing a lawn and driving a minivan.

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By and then they were broken from jlfsjflrgjlegjel
Posted: 03/05/2010 5:32 PM

Last I checked, we still lived in a democracy and still had a 1st Amendment, so maybe the people who need to be "leashed and muzzled" are those who would leash and muzzle others. As for Fioretti, he broke his promise about having a community meeting. This is just a long string of promises that Fioretti has broken. When a political leader says something, we need to have some assurance that the truth is being told.

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By Butler V. Adams from Chicagoan
Posted: 03/05/2010 2:34 PM

First of all, Printers Row should have no say in this matter once so ever. Secondly, the second phase of the Buckingham is directly on the southeast edge of the Loop and will be constructed next to a 35 story dormitory where a current dorm is being demolished. I think Ald. Fioretti is overstepping when it comes to this development and residents in the surrounding are trying to exert power that they don't & shouldn't have. It some of these people need to be leashed & muzzled.