CHICAGO | Lincoln Yards

[Randomguy34]

Ald. Hopkins sent out a newsletter containing the powerpoint for Wednesday's meeting. Not too much new info, but it seems that the site plan for Lincoln Yards has been narrowed down to two choices: Option A having a larger commercial & smaller entertainment component, and option B having a smaller commercial & larger entertainment component. Both choices show residential will primarily be along Clybourn Avenue. A transit corridor still seems to be in the works, but no info on if it will be BRT or light rail. We'll have to wait for the Wednesday meeting to bring more info.

Powerpoint: https://gallery.mailchimp.com/936879...84b4-182658185

[Barrelfish]

Access to that entertainment district looks quite poor, other than the water taxi (legitimate question - does anyone take the water taxi?). Besides that you can:

• Best option: take the metra, and walk the ~1/2 mile
• Exit off the highway onto North and drive through angled side streets with one lane each way
• North/Clybourn red line and either take the 72 bus and walk through the Home Depot parking lot, or walk up through the industrial buildings on Kingsbury to get to the new bridge at Wisconsin
• Armitage brown line + 73 bus or walk to the new residential area + walk across the new Dominick street bridge
• Take the blue line to Damen or Division, and either take a bus and cut through Home depot as above, or walk a mile and go under the highway underpass
• Bike to the new trail at Elston, and then walk the rest of the way.

That's a lot of options, but not really any good ones besides the metra, which is only useful for people coming in from the Northwest side. Hard to see it being anything other than a mess of lyfts and ubers on those tiny side streets when anything is going on.

Also interesting that the soccer stadium is only included in Option B.

[ardecila]

Originally Posted by Randomguy34

A transit corridor still seems to be in the works, but no info on if it will be BRT or light rail. We'll have to wait for the Wednesday meeting to bring more info.

I don't know why you're even thinking it will be light rail. I'm sure it will be a bus route, using quiet streets and new bridges as much as possible. I'm disappointed they aren't connecting the route to the Red Line, but I guess CTA buses already make those connections on Armitage and North.

[Randomguy34]

^ the city is in early stages of having light rail connect to Lincoln Yards, but have suggested the possibility of a bus route

Chicago eyes 606 extension, light rail route from North Side to downtown
http://www.chicagotribune.com/busine...501-story.html

[ChiPlanner]

Sterling Bay just bought the Star Car Wash on Elston. In the most recent presentation above, it appears to be green space of some sort?

https://blockclubchicago.org/2018/07...e-coming-next/

[left of center]

^ BRT is fine as a start, so long as there is a dedicated ROW. It can then be upgraded to LR at any point in the future.

Although using existing trackage (if possible?) would be a great money saving move.

It would be great if it could link up to the north side mainline or Blue line somehow. I think we have enough radial lines that lead outwards from downtown and then dead end.

[ChiShawn]

Some connection from Brown/Purple or Red to Blue without going downtown would be very useful. I'm not very hopeful on that happening based on the transit slides in the presentation. It looks like they still just want another spur to downtown. With it becoming an entertainment district and all of the office space, you would think people from places other than the loop would need to get there.

[the urban politician]

Tribune posting more details on Lincoln Yards. Can’t access it

[Randomguy34]

^ Gotcha covered

Lincoln Yards development could bring 5,000 homes and 23,000 jobs to North Side

By Ryan Ori

Skyscrapers as tall as 70 stories are part of a developer’s ambitious plan to bring 23,000 jobs and 5,000 homes to the Chicago River on the city’s North Side.

Those are among new details that Chicago developer Sterling Bay unveiled Wednesday night during the long-anticipated first public meeting for its planned Lincoln Yards project, a more-than-$5 billion development planned for at least 70 acres along the river between Lincoln Park and Bucktown, on parcels once occupied by the A. Finkl & Sons steel plant and other industrial businesses.

Sterling Bay’s plan has the potential to transform a swath of old manufacturing properties into a town center of sorts, with offices, hotels, apartments, condominiums, shops, restaurants, sports, entertainment and outdoor activities.

Yet the plan also presents enormous challenges — particularly traffic congestion, concerns about straining resources such as nearby schools, and providing adequate park space.

“Lincoln Yards is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to transform a former industrial site into a vibrant community that will finally connect Bucktown and Wicker Park to Lincoln Park and activate our extraordinary riverfront,” Sterling Bay managing principal Andy Gloor said ahead of the meeting.

Lincoln Yards is made up of long stretches of land along the east and west sides of the river between North and Webster avenues. The development’s name is a nod to the site’s industrial past and Chicago’s history as a rail hub, Gloor said.

Sterling Bay’s preliminary plan is to build about 12 million square feet of buildings, not including parking. It would be divided roughly in half between commercial and residential space, according to Gloor and Erin Cabonargi, the firm’s director of development services.

The plan includes about 5,000 residential units and 400 to 500 hotel rooms.

Sterling Bay is seeking zoning approval to build towers as tall as 700 to 800 feet, the firm said. That would equate to somewhere in the range of 70 stories, a height typically seen in and immediately around the Loop. The towers would be the tallest buildings north of downtown, a distinction that now belongs to the 869-foot-tall mixed-use tower at 900 N. Michigan Ave., about a mile south of Lincoln Yards.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/busine...718-story.html

[LouisVanDerWright]

I hope they are planning to buy the Citizens of Chicago a nice new heavy rail line if they are planning that kind of density...

[Skyguy_7]

^Clearly not; it appears they're going for the first new heavy water taxi hub...which isn't the worst idea to better utilize our relatively wide-open rivers.

[SIGSEGV]

Need hovercraft for the winter though

[k1052]

Curious to see what the busway plan will actually look like. Transportation end of this is going to need a lot of thought and planning to accommodate full buildout.

[Mr Downtown]

I don't see the need for a new radial rail line. Wouldn't a simple circulator bus give the site plenty of access?

[LouisVanDerWright]

^ You are right, none of the roads you highlight ever suffer crippling congestion that would snare busses and that certainly wouldn't happen once you add 5000 homes and 23000 jobs to the mix... This project is a pipe dream unless it comes with serious infrastructure upgrades for the L. A North Ave subway would do the trick, but let's be real here, we are talking downtown density in a former industrial corridor. How is that supposed to work? I just sat in my first "Lincoln Yards traffic" the other day where I crossed the river on Cortland on accident because I overshot a driveway and it took me 15 minutes in stand still traffic just to get back on the other side of the river 1000' feet away from where I did a U Turn.

[spyguy]

Rather ambitious. I could see the housing and hotel components going through (not at 70 stories), but I'm not sure I see the need for millions of square feet of office space unless it's Amazon.

[k1052]

Lol at the idea anybody thinks that Lincoln Park residents would allow the implementation of any kind of efficient circulator on Halsted and Armitage. Probably best just to make the walk to the Purple/Brown there as pleasant/short as possible.

I think a bus circulator with BRT attributes (dedicated and enforced rush ROW, TSP, enhanced boarding, etc) tying in the Red and Blue lines would be good and perhaps even achievable.

[tjp]

what about BRT along Ashland? It could even connect to the Metra lines near 290.

[r18tdi]

It's outside of the LY boundary, but something really needs to be done about the Clybourn/Racine/Courtland intersection.
I say demolish Zella and Dunkin and put in a roundabout!

[VKChaz]

Originally Posted by k1052

Lol at the idea anybody thinks that Lincoln Park residents would allow the implementation of any kind of efficient circulator on Halsted and Armitage. Probably best just to make the walk to the Purple/Brown there as pleasant/short as possible.

I think a bus circulator with BRT attributes (dedicated and enforced rush ROW, TSP, enhanced boarding, etc) tying in the Red and Blue lines would be good and perhaps even achievable.

Those are small neighborhood streets lined with small businesses. They aren't intended to be a dedicated pass-through for bus traffic.
The scale of this proposal makes no sense from a planning standpoint. I can somewhat understand the City desperately trying for Amazon and so considering something questionable in case that moved forward. But when that doesn't happen, there is just no compelling reason for this scale in that location. It isn't as though the city has a shortage of underutilized land including even the Reese property which the City has a vested interest in seeing move forward.