



by BRIAN NADIG

A hearing on a proposed a four-story retail center at the former Bank of America site, 4747 W. Irving Park Road, will be deferred at the Thursday, March 12 meeting of the City Council Committee on Zoning, Landmarks and Building Standards.

“There are no definitive plans to bring to the community, so this is being deferred,” said Alderman John Arena’s chief of staff Owen Brugh. It is not clear why the developer, CSD Six Corners LLC, filed a zoning application for the project given the preliminary nature of the plans, he said.

The application, which was filed about two months ago, states that the four-story center would include two parking levels with 473 parking spaces and two retail levels with 196,240 square feet of space. A site plan shows that a portion of the center would be separated by an outdoor walkway that runs between Milwaukee and Irving Park.

The nearly 4-acre site includes an underutilized parking lot in the 3900 block of North Milwaukee Avenue, and plans reportedly call for former bank building, which features an ornate lobby, to be demolished. Bank of America recently opened a smaller branch at 4671 W. Irving Park Road.

The proposal calls for the site to be rezoned from B1-1 to a Business Planned Development, which would create a customized zoning ordinance for the property. The underlying zoning of the planned development would be B3-3, which allows for higher density and more types of commercial uses than the existing zoning.

A master plan that the Six Corners Association created in 2013 calls for the redevelopment of the property to include 50 to 75 residential units on the upper floors, but project officials have said that there are no plans for residential uses.

In a separate proposal, Arena will hold a community meeting at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 11, at Las Tablas restaurant, 4920 W. Irving park Road, for a proposal for an Aldi’s grocery store and a fitness center inside the former Bank of America building at 4901 W. Irving Park Road. A zoning application has not been filed for the project.

Meanwhile, the zoning committee at its March 12 meeting is scheduled to hold a hearing on a plan to open a cider-making operation, a brewery, a restaurant, a bar and banquet space inside the former Masonic temple at 4240 W. Irving Park Road. The site would be rezoned from B3-1 to C1-5, which would allow for the brewery and would eliminate parking requirements for the property.

Arena and the Old Irving Park Association support the project, but some residents living near the site have expressed concern that the 19,205-square-foot facility is too large for the neighborhood and would create parking problems and increase alley traffic. Seventeen parking spaces are planned.

The committee’s meeting will start at 10 a.m. in the Council Chamber at City Hall, 121 N. LaSalle St.



