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Originally Posted by cityscapes
It's pretty common in the Midwest. I moved from Portland to the Midwest and you can build a major project without any public notice or hearing where I work. There aren't staff reports to show how projects meet or don't meet code or design guidelines. The whole process is not nearly as transparent as it is on the West Coast.
Most of these cities have had major problems over the past 50 years and have focused on other priorities and now that they're recovering from divestment and decay they still have a mentality where any development is good development regardless of the quality. That's why I think so much of the development here is so unattractive. With a lack of transparency there's no one to hold local governments and developers accountable and a lot of the codes and standards are outdated. The only time the public gets to see things is if local media can get their hands on elevations. I think all of this contributes to a lower quality design in new construction projects. Downtown Chicago has so many new buildings with bad designs and they integrate with the street poorly and often have massive parking podiums. Here in Ohio a lot of new infill gets built with very cheap materials that aren't suited to the climate and the state doesn't mandate comprehensive planning so the cities grow without any sort of cohesive plan.
Everyone in Portland is lucky to live in a state with good land use planning laws. It might slow development a little compared to the short approval times here, but you get better quality infrastructure, site design, and architecture in the finished product which overall makes Oregonian cities more attractive, sustainable, and boots quality of life.
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Not sure about Ohio, but....Having moved to Chicago from Portland I’m not sure where to begin on this. Chicagoans have *ample* opportunity to view and contribute to the unveiling of any major building project in the city or their ward. From a small apartment building to a high rise. The idea that anyone can build anything without public feedback is ludicrous. There are some aldermen that, in my opinion, actually go too far in letting residents control a particular project.
I’m not saying that things aren’t tricky now and then when things get approved, I believe the asphalt plant in McKinley Park didn’t do proper environmental notifications to local residents, for example. Some developers get favored attention from aldermen in hot wards by donating, etc.
But this idea that Chicago is so thirsty for development that they approve anything and everything under the cover of darkness with no review is complete BS. The spire site proposal has been through multiple public hearings and the alderman killed it and sent the developer back to the drawing board.
I think vista tower, nema, and wolf point towers are all gorgeous and went through vigorous design reviews. Are there bad developments on parking podiums? Absolutely. But I consider that more of a local cultural choice or a fear from developers that if they don’t add parking they won’t be able to sell units. The geology of Chicago also makes underground parking prohibitively expensive which is why podiums are the norm. TOD here is also much more controversial as its seen as a more gentrifying element than in Portland. And the L is already packed along the corridors developers are going to.
From my understanding about the hotel project here, it was approved by right as it fit the zoning but I don’t recall it getting building permits. Chicago also approves permits in phases, so they may have been allowed to do soil testing or site prep maybe. I’m probably wrong, but my understanding is that it’s been an off again on again project for years and is for all intents and purposes a dead/dormant project. Not sure if it’s the market or funding or what.
I’d also add that if the Multnomah County Courthouse was produced from Portland’s vaunted public process then it’s worth a revisit on how well it’s working - not only is that building ugly as hell it seems the city didn’t take into consideration its placement within the skyline and what a prominent location like that would need, it’s a huge wasted opportunity and looks super awkward. With a few exceptions I completely disagree on the state of Portland/Oregon’s quality of architecture, nothing compelling or visionary being built and the major projects being built in Portland would be infill in most major cities. It’s a pretty town surrounded by some of the most amazing landscape in the country but the architecture never gave me goosebumps.
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Talk about a horrible pedestrian environment!
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