A proposal for a seven-story, 60-unit apartment building at 1704 N. Milwaukee Ave. in Bucktown has been introduced to the Chicago City Council. The development, led by Bill Senne, seeks a zoning change to allow for ground-floor retail and two levels of parking.
Senne has owned the shopping center on the site for decades. The property currently houses Garfield’s liquor store, CorePower yoga studio, and a surface parking lot with 24 spaces across from the Bucktown-Wicker Park library.
The latest plans include 60 apartments on the upper floors. A two-level garage would provide 67 parking spaces, with 12 reserved for residents and the remainder available as paid public parking. This is a reduction from earlier proposals that included about 100 spaces.
Senne and his team first presented their plans to neighbors during a community meeting in September. Since then, two apartments were added and parking was reduced. Zoning attorney Nicholas Ftikas confirmed that while internal floor plans have changed, “the building’s exterior elevations and massing stayed the same.”
“The changes we made prior to filing (reduced overall parking count and increased residential unit count) are reflected on the floor plans, but the building’s exterior elevations and massing stayed the same,” Ftikas said in an email Monday.
The zoning change must be approved by both the council’s Committee on Zoning, Landmarks and Building Standards and then by the full council. The committee usually meets monthly but has not convened since December due to ongoing leadership changes among alderpeople. No February meeting date has been set.
The planned development would feature a mix of one-, two-, three-bedroom units and two studios; twelve units will be designated as affordable housing per city requirements.
Community meetings hosted by local organizations showed general support for the project, though some residents raised concerns about building height and potential traffic impacts on Wabansia Avenue.
At one meeting, Senne addressed these concerns: “Parking is a real concern for us,” he said in September. “I’m not here to debate whether you like the bike lanes or not, but it did take away a substantial volume of parking. So as a business owner, that has impacted my business. … So albeit some people don’t like the parking, there is definitely a need for parking.”
Plans indicate that access to the garage would be from Wabansia Avenue across from Small Cheval restaurant. Nearly 11,000 square feet of retail space is planned along Milwaukee Avenue at street level; current tenants CorePower Yoga and Garfield’s have shown interest in remaining after construction.
