Tall & Urban News

Developer Sterling Bay will present revised plans for its $5 billion-plus Lincoln Yards mixed-use development in a public meeting on Nov. 29, 2018. 
 
Shorter skyscrapers — and fewer of them — along with more park space are key aspects of a revised plan for the proposed $5 billion-plus Lincoln Yards development along the Chicago River on the city’s North Side, which developer Sterling Bay will formally unveil at a public meeting Thursday. 
 
The developer, among the busiest in the city, is redrawing its plans in an effort to secure city zoning approval for a project that, even pared down, would be among the most ambitious mixed-use developments in the city in decades. 
 
Since its first public presentation in July, Sterling Bay has faced questions including how it will mitigate traffic, how much park space will be created for the public, and what impact Lincoln Yards could have on schools and smaller businesses such as The Hideout, the popular bar and music venue. 
 
The tallest buildings now would be about 650 feet tall (199 meters), or a little over 50 stories, rather than the previously proposed maximum of about 800 feet (243 meters.) Sterling Bay also plans to create 20.9 acres (8.4 hectares) of open and publicly accessible space, up from the 13.4 acres (5.42 hectares) previously proposed. 
 
Under the new plan, 37 percent of the site’s land would be set aside for sports fields, playgrounds, meadows, riverwalk paths and other uses, the firm said. That compares with 25 percent previously. 
 
“We’ve really stretched and pulled our plan to make sure we maximize the open space,” Sterling Bay managing principal Andy Gloor said. 
 
Lincoln Yards, a 70-acre (28-hectare) parcel along Lincoln Park and Bucktown, would become the northernmost point of the city with 50-story towers. The project could become a centerpiece of an expected wave of commercial development on riverfront properties previously dominated by industrial uses before Mayor Rahm Emanuel in recent years pushed through sweeping land-use changes. 
 
If approved and built, the project would bring 23,000 permanent jobs to office, retail, hotel and sports and entertainment buildings on the site, as well as 4,000 to 5,000 residences and a 20,000-seat soccer stadium and multiple music and entertainment venues. 
 
The site was included in Chicago’s pitch to Amazon for its second headquarters location. 
 
Sterling Bay’s current proposal is for 54.5 acres (22 hectares) of the more than 70 acres (28 hectares) the firm owns or is in the process of buying on the east and west sides of the river between Webster and North avenues. Sterling Bay is expected to seek zoning approval later for other nearby parcels of land it owns or plans to buy, as it develops Lincoln Yards in several phases. 
 
Changes to its plans come after an initial public meeting held by 2nd Ward Ald. Brian Hopkins in July of 2018, as well as follow-up meetings with neighbors and community groups. 
 
Interest in the first meeting was so great that many spectators were unable to get in. Some attendees complained that Sterling Bay’s presentation didn’t show enough specific details, and that there was no public question-and-answer session afterward. Instead, Sterling Bay’s development team answered questions in small groups at stations throughout the room. 
 
Hopkins vowed to require public questions at the next meeting. He also objected when Sterling Bay formally filed zoning plans with the City Council, saying that he’d yet to give the project his approval. 
 
Since the July meeting, Sterling Bay said it has met with more than two dozen community groups and 100 individuals to gain feedback. 
 
Thursday’s public meeting is at 6 p.m. at Renew Chicago Church, 1001 N. Crosby St. 
 
The revised plan eliminates some proposed buildings entirely and reduces the height of others. More than 100 stories of building height combined have been eliminated from the initial plan, according to Sterling Bay and the project’s architecture firm, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. 
 
“I’ve made it clear and the community has made it clear that we need less density and more open space,” Hopkins said ahead of Thursday’s meeting. 
 
Although Sterling Bay is decreasing the proposed height of some towers, the total square feet of buildings in the plan has increased to 12.8 million (1.2 million square meters), up from 12 million (1.1 million square meters) previously. The increase is due, in part, to acres added in the overall site plan — which now includes an already built office building occupied by logistics firm C.H. Robinson at 1515 W. Webster Ave. 
 
Hopkins said he’s reserving judgment on the plan until after the meeting, after which he’ll conduct a second public survey to gauge public sentiment. Hopkins said he wants to see more specifics on many aspects of the plan — including much-needed infrastructure improvements in an area already plagued by traffic congestion. 
 
One previously mentioned plan is to reconfigure the intersection of Elston, Ashland and Armitage avenues. The developer and the city also are looking at creating several new car and pedestrian bridges going north-south and east-west. 
 
Sterling Bay also wants to relocate a nearby Metra train station onto the site and add three water taxi stops. Its plan would add a 1,300-foot (396-meter) extension of The 606 elevated trail over the river and create a mile of new riverwalk, according to the developer. 
 
Emanuel’s outgoing administration recently said it wants to create sources of funding, including new tax increment financing districts to help pay for those projects. 
 
Hopkins said he awaits more detailed information on all of those plans — and their funding — from Sterling Bay, the Chicago Department of Transportation and other city officials. 
 
“Nobody, including me, is satisfied with the amount of detail on the public infrastructure build-outs,” Hopkins said. “Frankly, I thought we’d be farther along in the process than we are.” 
 
Lincoln Yards was one of five sites Amazon visited earlier this year as it considered North American locations for its proposed second headquarters, or HQ2. Amazon ultimately split it up into two planned new locations, in New York and Arlington, Va. 
 
Gloor declined to comment on Amazon’s search, but said Sterling Bay is in conversations with large office tenants to kick off construction of Lincoln Yards. 

For more on this story, go to Chicago Tribune.