Metropolitan Planning Council
It was a packed room last Tuesday for the final Logan Square meeting, where experts weighed in on community designs.
On Tuesday, Sept. 30, over 200 Logan Square residents and stakeholders gathered for the final meeting of a three-part Corridor Development Initiative series hosted by the Metropolitan Planning Council (MPC). This series focused specifically on the future development possibilities of the Logan Square Blue Line station plaza and the adjacent parking lot. After expressing their wants and needs for Logan Square in the first meeting and creating mock developments out of blocks in the second meeting, the attendees were anxious to hear feedback on their ideas.
MPC displayed renderings of all 28 projects proposed by the participants and walked through alternative scenarios for four of these proposals to demonstrate the give-and-take that often occurs when trying to conceptualize and finance a new development. The audience was able to direct questions to an expert panel of developers comprised of Mikki Anderson from The Michaels Organization, Sarah Wick from Related Midwest, and Todd Cabanban from CR&M. Respectively, these panelist represented market rate housing, affordable housing and retail development.
Alderman Rey Colón also responded to audience questions. He shared his insights on future development in Logan Square and explained that the results of these meetings will be used to inform his ongoing work with the City of Chicago’s Department of Planning and Development, Department of Transportation and Transit Authority to determine the site’s future use.
Considering the many diverse proposals, MPC asked the audience a variety of questions to better understand compromises the community would be willing to make in order for development to occur at the site. For example, when asked for their top priority for the site, the majority of participants answered affordable housing. Responses to similar questions and a full analysis of information gathered at all three meetings will be summarized in a final report to be released by MPC in the upcoming months. MPC welcomes anyone to contribute to this report by taking an online survey that will help us to capture more thoughts about the future of Logan Square.
Review the final meeting’s presentation and agenda (see Spanish), as well as background materials to learn more about the Logan Square series. Future updates on this process can be found at metroplanning.org/logansquare.