1513 East Fulton - Church to Mixed Use

[GRDadof3]

There's some buzz on The Salon about this project, a church that was being used as Common Ground Church is being sold for redevelopment into a restaurant, coffee shop and 6 apartments. Goes before the BZA on January 15th.

 

Connecting the dots, I think I know who the applicant is (restaurant owner, has restaurants on the lakeshore and in Chicago).

 

 

 

[GR_Urbanist]

I dont know. Looks like a bit of an awkward building to try to fit all of that in there, and have it make sense unless they plan to build some addition out to the street seeing that the existing green space will become a parking lot.

[organsnyder]

Not sure I'd be a big fan if I lived nearby. At the risk of sounding like an Mlive regular, I think that the "where would they park!?!" question has some merit in this case. Lowell and Mayfield Aves would often be packed with cars, I'd imagine. The neighborhood back there is a sleepy neighborhood of small-ish homes (reminds me of Alger Heights)—not the kind of area likely to support this sort of thing.

[GRDadof3]

The plan sort of reminds of Mangiamo. Big old structure set back from the road on the left, big parking lot on the right. With apartments.

[Veloise]

The owner of "existing house" (the more northern one on Mayfield) shares this:

 

Proposed Use: Renovate interior of building, creating casual fine dining restaurant/alcohol service and six two bedroom apartment units for rent.(Also retail and coffee shop)
Variance Request: rezone from residential to traditional business.
Green space from required 30% to 15% (although the current plan says 10%). Reduce parking from required 66 to 33. Reduce required buffer for abutting properties from 10ft. to 2ft., hang a wall sign per TBA requirements.

 

I would bet my "thanks for serving on the ZBA" certificate that it doesn't pass.

[GRDadof3]

The applicant withdrew their zoning change request on this, and based on the timing and if it's who I think it is, I'll bet they're going for the 1034 Wealthy St property instead...  We shall see.

[ctpgr34]

Looks to be a neighborhood meeting to discuss this project is coming up in April- http://www.eastown.org/1513-e-fulton/

[ModSquad]

6 hours ago, ctpgr34 said:

Looks to be a neighborhood meeting to discuss this project is coming up in April- http://www.eastown.org/1513-e-fulton/

Check your date on this, that was last year....

[ctpgr34]

Should've read closer, for some reason it was on gr's FB newsfeed today saying it was an upcoming event. Pulled down now. My bad

[amylynne]

That link might have been wrong, but there is a meeting coming up next week: http://fultonheights.org/2016/03/common-ground-church-development/

 

[GRDadof3]

How do people think this is going to go? The city requires 140 parking spaces for this many restaurant tables, but the developer is only proposing 40 parking spaces and valet for the rest. Since this is not a densely populated area, you'd have to assume that restaurant patrons will mostly drive there. Even 50 cars spilling into the surrounding neighborhood seems like it'd be a lot for neighbors to handle. 

[Guest]

140 spaces for a 167 seat restaurant seems like overkill.  It did say the developer is looking into using parking at the academy next door, which would make a lot of sense as the peak times for a casual fine dining restaurant would most likely be nights and weekends.

[jas49503]

I don't think it will be that big of a deal. So  50 cars park on the street, welcome to city living. The city pays for those spots to be available, not the private citizen who owns the house behind the parking.  Since the parking is already bought and paid for, might as well use it. 

[GRDadof3]

12 hours ago, jas49503 said:

I don't think it will be that big of a deal. So  50 cars park on the street, welcome to city living. The city pays for those spots to be available, not the private citizen who owns the house behind the parking.  Since the parking is already bought and paid for, might as well use it. 

So you think the neighborhoods like Eastown who've started parking permit programs are, unconstitutional? 

[jas49503]

I wouldn't say unconstitutional. I just don't think it's a big deal. I personally don't think they are worth it. My dad had it in Chicago and if I would visit him, it was a huge pain. My neighborhood here doesn't have it and I don't think it's a big deal. People park in front of my house every day. 

[x99]

On 3/12/2016 at 8:23 PM, jas49503 said:

I don't think it will be that big of a deal. So  50 cars park on the street, welcome to city living. The city pays for those spots to be available, not the private citizen who owns the house behind the parking.  Since the parking is already bought and paid for, might as well use it. 

Then I'll say the same thing I said the last time it came up:  If I ain't got no rights to some parking, then the City can stop askin' me to mow its damn lawn between their sidewalk and their road.

As to the topic at hand, this would be a perfect shared parking solution.  Rent restaurant parking from academy as suggested above.  Problem solved.

[walker]

On 3/12/2016 at 8:23 PM, Floyd_Z said:

. . .   It did say the developer is looking into using parking at the academy next door, which would make a lot of sense as the peak times for a casual fine dining restaurant would most likely be nights and weekends.

 

7 hours ago, x99 said:

. . . As to the topic at hand, this would be a perfect shared parking solution.  Rent restaurant parking from academy as suggested above.  Problem solved.

Maybe I'm missing something but the only parking of note at The Abney Academy appears to be behind the school building way far away.  Maybe they could get the restaurant employees to park back there but it doesn't seem too convenient for your average casual restaurant patron.

satellite view

[GRDadof3]

1 hour ago, walker said:

 

Maybe I'm missing something but the only parking of note at The Abney Academy appears to be behind the school building way far away.  Maybe they could get the restaurant employees to park back there but it doesn't seem too convenient for your average casual restaurant patron.

satellite view

The developer is banking on people using valet parking, where the restaurant would use the academy's parking lot. 

I only asked earlier what people here thought, because I don't think very many people who live near this project are in support of it. Especially since it also requires tearing down homes and turning green space into a parking lot. 

The house on the right would be demolished as well as several others on Mayfield I believe, to make way for surface parking.

[mjak68]

18 minutes ago, GRDadof3 said:

The developer is banking on people using valet parking, where the restaurant would use the academy's parking lot. 

I only asked earlier what people here thought, because I don't think very many people who live near this project are in support of it. Especially since it also requires tearing down homes and turning green space into a parking lot. 

The house on the right would be demolished as well as several others on Mayfield I believe, to make way for surface parking.

 

Don't it always seem to go that you don't know what you got till it's gone....