Milwaukee Ave B2-2 Zoning Change

I went to Alderman Colon’s re-zoning meeting last Wednesday and he is going to propose a zoning change for most of Milwaukee Ave between Diversey and Central Park.   Most of the buildings will be re-zoned B2-2.  A strip mall and a church will be keeping their existing zoning.   This is exciting and will be a really good case study to see how live/work space and the artists who inhabit them can impact a commercial strip that is struggling.  Individual property owners still have to convert their storefronts to live/work space but now they have the right to make that change and since there are several vacant storefronts it seems likely that some owners will try the conversion.  Please contact me directly if you are interested in a space on Milwaukee Ave.  I know of at least one owner who is going ahead with the conversion already. 

The other thing I learned at the meeting was this is not the first B2-2 conversion to occur (though it seems to be a secret that there were others).  Several buildings on Damen between Lawrence and Argyle were re-zoned to B2-2 a few years ago.   It is a smaller area than the one proposed in Logan/Avondale but if you check out that strip of Damen you will see that it was successful.