Developers have their sights set on Madison Street. With a plan to build a senior housing community at Madison and Euclid still under review, the plan commission will hear another Madison Street development proposal Jan. 9.
Michigan Avenue Real Estate Group (MAREG) is seeking village approval to build a five-story, 48-unit apartment building at 435 to 451 Madison Street. People would enter the building on Madison Street. The vehicular entrance would be on Gunderson Avenue.
The proposed complex also has 48 indoor parking spaces, as well as bicycle storage, located on the ground floor of the building. The lobby, elevator and a waste and recycling center are also located on the ground floor.
The upper four floors have a combination of one- and two-bedroom units, a total of 12 units per floor. Each unit has a balcony. According to the proposal, “balconies have been located around the building so as to minimize the impact on adjacent homes.”
Requested zoning relief includes an increase in density from the maximum allowed 24 living units to 48 and a height increase from the zoning-mandated limit of 50 feet to 63 feet.
MAREG is also asking for a decrease in on-site loading areas to zero.
“They are required to have one, but they want to put it on street versus on the property,” said Oak Park Village Planner Craig Failor. “My guess is that they probably couldn’t work it into their first-floor design because the site is the adequate size to provide for the required number of parking spaces.”
Additionally, MAREG is requesting a reduction in rear yard setback from 25 feet to 7 feet.
This is the first proposed development on Madison Street to come under the requirement since the passing of the inclusionary housing ordinance in March 2019, Failor said. The proposed Madison Street senior living community, he noted, is exempt.
The ordinance allows developers the choice between making 10 percent of its dwelling units affordable to renters making 60 percent of the area median income or paying into Oak Park’s affordable housing fund at a rate of $100,000 per affordable unit.
According to Failor, MAREG’s plan is to pay $500,000 into Oak Park’s affordable housing fund instead of setting aside five units, 10 percent of the building’s total, for affordable housing.
