[marothisu]

Sterling Bay tweaks Lincoln Yards plan

https://www.chicagobusiness.com/comm...oln-yards-plan

Sterling Bay's plan to redraw a big swath of the North Branch of the Chicago River is getting a lower profile and a little less crowded in hopes of winning over North Side residents.

Four months after publicly unveiling its Lincoln Yards development between Lincoln Park and Bucktown, the Chicago developer will reveal a revised proposal this week that cuts 100 stories of buildings out of the plan and increases open space by 56 percent.

The most visible change to the plan is shorter buildings. After stunning North Side stakeholders over the summer with proposed skyscrapers as high as 70 stories, the tallest tower under the new plan would be 650 feet, or about 50 stories.

Those still would be high-rises typically found in areas like the Loop or River North and would dwarf the surrounding neighborhoods. And though the heights have shrunk, the new plan calls for 12.8 million square feet of buildings—up from the previous 12 million—because the planned development boundary has increased, according to a Sterling Bay spokeswoman.

But more room to work with also means more open space under the new plan, something neighborhood groups have demanded for a corridor already rankled by congestion and traffic gridlock.

Two parcels previously reserved for buildings would be replaced with park space under the new version. Those sites, combined with open-air plazas and riverwalks running along the North Branch, would total 20.9 acres of publicly accessible open space, according to Sterling Bay. That's an increase from 13.4 acres under the plan pitched in July and does not include space in the 20,000-seat soccer stadium planned as an anchor for the site's arts and entertainment-focused southern portion, Sterling Bay officials said.

Under the latest version of the plan, Sterling Bay would extend Dominick Street south, where it would stretch over the Chicago River and connect to North Avenue. Southport Avenue would be extended into the development to Armitage Avenue, which would be stretched across the river with a bridge. Those two streets would connect with Kingsbury Street. Elston Avenue would be rerouted to alleviate traffic and safety issues at its intersection with Ashland Avenue.

All of those additions would aim to reduce traffic along Clybourn and Elston avenues on east and west border of the project.

A transit-way track would run from downtown to the Lincoln Yards site on existing freight train tracks, and a new multi-modal Metra station just south of the current Clybourn Metra stop would link the commuter rail with an extension of the 606 bike trail, which would go directly into the heart of the Lincoln Yards site.