Resolution on the Proposed Development at the Six Corners People’s Gas Site
United Northwest Side is an independent political organization (IPO) made up of Northwest Side neighbors in the 45th, 38th, and surrounding wards, fighting to help ensure our communities have a place for everyone. Along with our neighbors, our members recently received preliminary details about a new proposed development at the former Six Corners People’s Gas site in the 45th Ward, at 3955 N. Kilpatrick Ave. The massive planned development would reportedly be a mix of residential and commercial space, including four separate retail buildings and a total of 354 new apartments with high-end amenities. So far, however, the project’s developer has refused to pledge that a full 20% of these residential units would qualify as affordable units, as is currently required under the city’s current Affordable Requirements Ordinance (ARO). The developer has publicly stated that it may not designate the required 20% of apartments as affordable, but may instead pay a one-time fee in lieu of preserving affordability for 30 years. We urge GW Properties to commit publicly to constructing the minimum required 70 affordable units, and urge that these units include a mix of apartment sizes to accommodate families as well as single renters. Further, we encourage the City of Chicago’s Committee on Zoning to withhold its approval of the proposal absent the inclusion of the full 20% affordable units built on-site.
Our community’s insistence that the developer build the full amount of required affordable units is informed by our elected officials’ consistent failure to ensure this in the recent past. Proposed developments in the 45th Ward often receive the support of Ald. Jim Gardiner even though the developers seek to buy their way out of building affordable units, from projects small (4415 N, Milwaukee, 24 units) to large (4730 W. Irving Park Rd., 207 units). In the latter example, at the former Six Corners Sears site, across the street from the current People’s Gas site, the City Council approved construction even though the developer pledged to make only 6 out of 207 units affordable. Before the vote was taken, the city’s Plan Commission made special mention of needing to ensure that future developments in the area include the full number of affordable units. That is precisely what we want to see happen here.
We know how acute the need for additional affordable housing is in our corner of the city. Waiting lists for the few new affordable developments on the Northwest Side routinely number in the hundreds as soon as they open, a fact that has been covered extensively in the local and citywide press. This is the context in which we demand that developers ensure that 20% of the units that they build are affordable. If they refuse to, we call on the City’s Committee on Zoning refuse to grant their approval for this current proposal at the Six Corners People’s Gas site. We simply cannot let developers and elected officials keep kicking the can down the road when it comes to securing long-term housing stability and affordability, and fighting the market forces that threaten to gentrify our communities and displace our neighbors from their homes.
United Northwest Side General Membership