The Committee on Zoning meets today at 10:00 a.m. Among the proposed zoning changes on the agenda is an application [#18378] to construct a three story Whole Foods containing 79,5000 square feet of retail on the corner of Belmont, Ashland and Lincoln Avenues in the 44th Ward to replace an older Whole Foods just two blocks north on Ashland. Novak Construction purchased the former LaSalle Bank site and Ashland Belmont, LLC is the applicant on record for the project.  Under development for over seven years, this site had previously been slated at different times for apartments, a rumored Walmart and a Target.

The University of Chicago has requested a zoning change [#18336] to construct a new charter school, The University of Chicago Charter School-Woodlawn, on the property known as Residential Planned Development Number 723, land currently owned by the City of Chicago. The University had originally proposed expandingtheir Woodlawn campus, but eventually decided to build a new facility on the property which expands over several addresses, or about two acres of land between 63rd and 64th Streets and Greenwood Ave. According to the application, the school for middle-school and high-school students and will be three stories tall and about 70,000 square feet. It will also include “extensive green roof space, outdoor activity space, on-site parking, and community space”.

The Committee is also scheduled to discuss a zoning change to a property in River North near Merchandise Mart. The Chicago Transit Authority and Design Studio LLC own the plot on 201-223 W. Hubbard Street and 412-420 N. Wells Street–it’s currently a parking lot underneath the elevated CTA train. They’ve requested a zoning change to allow for construction of a new office building with commercial space on the ground floor.

There is also a request in the 39th Ward to rezone a one story high brick and concrete block building and adjacent lot on 6024-26 N Keystone Ave into manufacturing plant. The applicant, Peter Spyroboulos, intends to build on the existing structure.