Sterling Bay’s 1840 N. Marcey survives City Council fight

After the Committee on Zoning voted to reject Sterling Bay’s 615-unit, two-tower development at 1840 N. Marcey on Monday, the proposal managed to avoid final rejection during yesterday’s City Council meeting. 

Located near Lincoln Yards, the project site is a long, rectangular site bound by N. Clifton Ave to the north, N. Kingsbury St to the west, N. Marcey St to the east, and W. Wisconsin St to the south. Sterling Bay received approval from the Chicago Plan Commission for the project back in June of this year despite Alderman Scott Waguespack’s opposition.

On Monday, the proposal was initially deferred before Alderman Beale opted to bring the item back up and rescind the deferral to force a vote on the project. After already leaving, the developer and zoning attorney rushed back to City Hall to avoid rejection, but the 7 out of 22 committee members left in the chamber ultimately voted to reject the project.

While Mayor Johnson supports the project, local alderman Waguespack is opposed to the project, arguing the buildings would be out of scale for the neighborhood and exacerbate traffic in the area. Another issue for the alderman is Sterling Bay’s effort to secure a “low-affordability community” designation which would award property tax reductions for providing all 20% affordable housing units on-site. The developer has said they will only provide all 20%, which amounts to 124 affordable apartments, if they receive the designation.

At City Council, the issue arose when Alderman Burnett, who chairs the Committee on Zoning, left the zoning change off the committee report, effectively trying to delay the vote on the project. According to typical procedures, all items voted on in a committee would be compiled into a committee report that would be then voted on by the City Council.

Alderman Waguespack decried the “unheard of” procedural move and sought to force a vote by trying to deny the entire committee report, putting the status of numerous zoning changes at risk. The meeting unraveled into shouting between aldermen including Ald. Waguespack and Ald. Ervin before the meeting went into recess to relieve the situation.

After the recess, Alderman Waguespack withdrew his motion to force a vote and deny the entire report. He said he would take the extra time to meet with Sterling Bay and try to address his outstanding concerns. With no final vote held, the project’s future still remains unclear with an impending deadline of December 25th for the City Council to vote on the project. 

If no vote is held by December 25th, which marks six months after Plan Commission approval, Sterling Bay could request a Inclusionary Housing designation from the Department of Housing to extend the consideration of the item to undergo more time in the community process before ultimately forcing a favorable vote over any decision from the Committee on Zoning.