In 2005, top aides to then-Mayor Richard M. Daley got in hot water for taking a spring break trip to Brazil with a developer mistakenly issued a permit to build a condominium in the heart of a planned manufacturing district where residential permits are supposed to be forbidden.
Now Mayor Rahm Emanuel is talking about relaxing the rules governing Chicago’s 15 PMD and 26 industrial corridors to pave the way for residential and retail development in those areas zoned to protect manufacturing from residential encroachment.
But there’s a catch: developers who stand to benefit by removing the PMD shackles would pay a fee for the privilege.
Planning and Development Commissioner David Reifman said the pot of money generated by those fees would be used to accomplish two goals: to bankroll roads, bridges and other infrastructure in areas “transitioning” from heavy manufacturing to lighter uses, and to expand Chicago’s still-thriving manufacturing districts, several of them on the South Side.
“The idea is to revisit our industrial landscape as a whole, including areas transitioning away from traditional manufacturing and areas that continue to exhibit strength and growth in manufacturing. That transition includes high-tech and office jobs. This is not simply about allowing residential zoning,” Reifman said Monday.
“People are reading this as a discussion about residential in PMDs. I’m saying the discussion is much larger. It’s about our industrial landscape as a whole. It’s about transitioning areas suitable for high-tech and complementary uses which may include residential and supporting jobs for Chicago in the best possible way.”
With the Chicago area hemorrhaging many of the 600,000 manufacturing jobs it had during the 1970s, Daley all but threw in the towel on reclaiming Chicago’s role as a manufacturing center.
But Reifman pointed to two “recent successes” in the Far South Side’s Pullman neighborhood — Method Manufacturing and the Whole Foods distribution center lured from Indiana — to argue just the opposite.
“I don’t think the data supports the conclusion that our manufacturing days are over. We’re seeing a lot of strength still. Even Finkl Steel is an example. They moved, not out of Chicago, but from Clybourn and the North Branch to a different area of Chicago that gave them better resources at 95th and Burnside. But the manufacturing continues,” the commissioner said.
The most immediate beneficiary of the mayor’s new policy could be Sterling Bay. The developer wants to build what could be a massive residential and commercial development on a 28-acre site along the Chicago River in Lincoln Park that once housed Finkl Steel.
“We’re going to begin the process by looking at certain key PMDs and industrial corridors, such as the North Branch with both existing industrial uses and transitioning areas as well,” Reifman said.
“We don’t want to lose our industrial base. We want to encourage growth in areas like Roosevelt and Cicero with strong potential for industrial growth and in areas like Little Village where we continue to see strong demand for manufacturing jobs. And we want to work through potential land uses in transitioning areas with existing property owners, businesses, developers, aldermen and community groups” before deciding on potential land uses.
Ald. Danny Solis (25th), chairman of the City Council’s Zoning Committee, likened the new fee to Chicago’s Affordable Requirements Ordinance and to Emanuel’s more recent plan to let developers in a broader downtown area build taller projects provided they share the wealth with impoverished inner-city neighborhoods plagued by vacant storefronts and dormant commercial strips.
“I have a PMD that’s one of the larger ones in the city: the Pilsen Industrial Corridor. We have a lot of light industry and jobs. But the east end hasn’t been as successful. You can see that portion of the PMD being a candidate for this new PMD ordinance. You could do commercial and residential,” Solis said.
“It’s east of Pilsen and just west of Chinatown. You can throw a rock across the river and hit Ping Tom Park. That area has a number of old historical buildings that have not been able to attract industry. That area could be a candidate for this new idea. It would bring some needed tax revenue to the city. It would bring service to an area that doesn’t have any tenants and continue to enhance development near the Loop and Chintatown.”
