This letter was first published in the Chicago Tribune. You can read the original here: https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/09/10/letters-091025-broadway-upzoning/
Rezoning Broadway will not be as dramatic as opponents such as Patricia Sharkey think it to be (“Edgewater residents offer a win-win compromise for Broadway,” Sept. 2), and it certainly won’t change Broadway overnight.
In its current state, Broadway is a Frankenstein’s-monster corridor; a mishmash of quaint low- to mid-rise buildings interspersed between large, vacant lots and strip malls that contribute to the urban heat island effect and are generally an eyesore. These empty lots are the properties that the Department of Planning and Development has rightly deemed to be underutilized and are not accessible to the 38.5% of households in Edgewater that do not own a vehicle. They are also the lots that developers are most likely to build on first because of the low or zero cost for demolition work, so fears that existing businesses will be pushed out are unfounded.
The claim that taxes may increase with the rise in property values when the rezoning proceeds is inconclusive at best. There are more factors at play that determine the tax rate a homeowner pays than the value of adjacent properties. Not to mention that once these properties become fully developed, the owners will be major contributors to our local tax base, which will actually benefit homeowners. But regardless of whether or not Broadway is rezoned, property values have risen and will continue to rise on the Far North Side because our neighborhoods are amenity-rich and desirable, and the best way to manage these price increases is through building more homes, not by starving supply and ignoring demand.
Sharkey also claims that parcels on the west side of Broadway “cannot absorb high-rises without overwhelming adjacent neighborhoods.” For starters, seven- to eight-story buildings are not high-rises. Not to mention there are existing buildings on Broadway’s east side that are actual high-rises, and they do not overwhelm the neighborhood in the slightest. Building ground-floor retail with homes on these parcels will connect the east and west sides of Broadway once more and will help restore its neighborhood character before it was razed for car-centric planning.
They say the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago, but the next best time is now. That is what the Broadway plan is in its essence. It’s a rejection of the short-sighted downzoning that took place along this corridor two decades ago and is instead an embrace of a future of much-needed growth, exciting possibilities and new neighbors.