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Committee on Zoning, Landmarks and Building Standards

Zoning committee approves Austin charter school

The City Council Zoning Committee approved a combination charter school and faith-based after school program in the Austin neighborhood on Thursday.

With Alderman Robert Fioretti (2nd) casting the lone vote in opposition, committee members signed off on redeveloping property at the intersection of North Laramie Avenue and West Kinzie Street.

New digital sign rules advance

As a permit moratorium on small digital signs winds down, the City Council Zoning Committee green-lighted Tuesday a host of new rules for the bright light ads.

Officials from Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s administration said the new ordinance would take on a growing quality-of-life issue of bright, blinking ads invading homes and businesses. “We live in an economy where these signs are now a reality,” said Rose Kelly, senior counsel at the Chicago Law Department.

Ordinance curbing petcoke held following environmentalists’ complaints

Southeast Side Alderman John Pope (10th) elected Tuesday to defer a committee vote on a measure imposing stricter regulations on petroleum coke facilities in Chicago after environmentalists assailed last-second changes to the proposed measure. The deferral further complicates city efforts to regulate petcoke, a by-product of oil refining. Southeast Side residents and public health advocates say the substance causes respiratory illness but state and federal regulators have not judged it to be a hazardous material.

Redevelopment of old Children’s Memorial Hospital site quietly advances

After years of heated Lincoln Park community debate, the City Council Zoning Committee quickly approved on Monday a $51 million plan to redevelop the former Children’s Memorial Hospital site, a proposal that includes two 21-story residential towers.

Bridgeport heliport to remain grounded for another week

Zoning committee adds strip club regulations

The City Council Zoning Committee green lighted Thursday changes to city law governing strip clubs, adult bookstores, and adult movie spots, effectively adding legal hurdles for any prospective strip club in the city.

According to Alderman Scott Waguespack (32nd), the ordinance's sponsor, the measure prevents an “adult bookstore, motion picture theater, or other type of establishment” from “transforming themselves” into strip clubs.

Handful of lawyers dominate crucial city zoning process

On Jan. 23, the Chicago City Council Committee on Zoning, Landmarks and Building Standards held a somewhat unusual meeting.

Instead of launching right into traditional matters, like whether a specific neighborhood shopping district should be re-zoned and modestly expanded into a commercial shopping district, committee members vigorously debated how the city might zone recently-legalized medical marijuana dispensaries.

Emanuel, Ald. Burke look to blunt medical pot sales

Repeatedly expressing anger that the state legalized medical cannabis with minimal input from the city of Chicago, Alderman Ed Burke (14th) put forward an ordinance during a Thursday City Council Zoning Committee meeting that would limit where in the city medical marijuana could be legally sold.

“I don’t know if the rest of you are as outraged as I am by the way we have been treated by the General Assembly,” Burke said.

New private school looks set for River West

The City Council’s Zoning Committee signed off Tuesday without discussion on a zoning change that paves the way for the construction of a new private school in the River West neighborhood.

Aldermen approved by voice vote the zoning change for Bennett Day School, a kindergarten through eighth grade academy that will be located at 955 W. Grand Ave. The K-8 school is slated to open in the fall of 2015 following the launch of a Bennett Day pre-kindergarten school at 657 W. Fulton Ave. The pre-kindergarten school is expected to begin operations in the fall of 2014.

Tunney cheers on changes to plans for Wrigley redevelopment

Members of City Council Zoning Committee on Thursday approved changes to plans for the massive redevelopment of Wrigley Field.

The newly-approved plans do not contain a previously proposed pedestrian bridge and call for the entrance to a new hotel to be located along a residential street instead of a commercial street, as pitched previously. Wrigleyville Alderman Tom Tunney (44th) – a one-time skeptic of the development – hailed the revised project as a “generational development” that will bring economic development and tax revenue to the city.

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