The city is preparing for a legal battle over its rezoning of a sizable stretch of Broadway in Edgewater and Uptown to allow for taller, denser buildings and a wider range of business uses.
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Earlier this month, lawyers with the city's department of law filed a motion to dismiss a lawsuit by a group of neighbors in Edgewater over the rezoning, Block Club Chicago reported. The move comes two months after Edgewater Residents for Responsible Development sued the city, alleging that the zoning changes violate due process rights and city and state zoning requirements.
The area under scrutiny includes 20 blocks of Broadway between Devon and Montrose avenues. The city hopes to take advantage of recent upgrades to the CTA Red Line and pave the way for developers to build mixed-use, mid-rise apartment towers in certain areas near transit in an effort to combat rising housing costs.
The Chicago City Council approved the changes in October following months of heated debate over the proposal.
The group of property and business owners suing the city alleged it failed to follow the zoning code and didn't notify property owners whose buildings would be rezoned or those who own buildings within 250 feet of the rezoned area. Property owners also weren't allowed to speak at a public hearing about the action, another violation of zoning law, the group claims in the lawsuit.
The group hopes to get the rezoning reversed and for the city to take a block-by-block approach to rezoning.
“You have to do it the right way, the way you would for any individual property and block,” Pat Sharkey, president of Edgewater Residents for Responsible Development, told Block Club. “People have rights that are at stake here.”
In its motion to dismiss, the city argued that neither neighbors' rights nor due process was violated.
Cook County Circuit Court Judge Neil Cohen set a hearing for June 4 to rule on the issue and will allow attorneys from both the city and the Edgewater group to make oral arguments.
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