Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Zoning Committee Approves Construction of British School of Chicago in South Loop

DNAinfo provides the following update on the debate around the British School of Chicago:
Renderings of British School of Chicago & Rooftop Park
(Via DNAinfo)
A city zoning committee voted Monday to allow the construction of a British School of Chicago in a vacant lot behind the Roosevelt Collection mall in the South Loop.
If the Lincoln Park school decides to build a publicly accessible park atop the building, residents are lucky, because they might otherwise not have gotten a park at all, Ald. Danny Solis (25th) said Monday before taking the vote on a planned development amendment to allow the school's construction. 
The Chicago Park District "was never interested" in taking over responsibility for developing and maintaining a park at the site, despite promises of a 2.2 acre green space that residents have clung to for months of back-and-forth with McCaffery Interests, which owns the Roosevelt Collection and the surrounding land, Solis said.

So it sounds like the school is moving forward, right?

The big head scratcher is the sentence that starts with "if"!  Does that mean the school has the green light to be built, but the "rooftop park" is now not required?  Hopefully we're just reading that wrong.

Can anyone help clarify for us?

UPDATE (6/6) - From a reader:
Before we all fall down the rabbit hole of speculation and conjecture it's best that we gather and assess the facts of this matter. I emailed the author of DNAInfo's article Lizzie Schiffman for clarification on the story.

Here is her reply: "Sorry for the confusion! The developers have committed to building the park, but the point Ald. Solis was making was that they were doing it out of their own generosity, not an obligation to provide a park, since that promise was made by the previous developers. Apologies if that was unclear, and thanks for reading! Best, Lizzie"

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