The City Council’s Zoning Committee took no action Tuesday on a controversial $1.1 billion proposal to develop several thousand riverfront apartments just north of where Bally’s Corp. is building its permanent Chicago casino.
The deferral sets up a possible up-or-down vote by the full City Council on June 20 for Vancouver-based Onni Group, which wants to build several skyscrapers up to 650 feet tall on a bend in the Chicago River at 700 W. Chicago Ave. The proposed River West project would involve a total of 2,451 residences, including nearly 500 affordable units.
The influential Service Employees International Union Local 1, a 50,000-member union that represents janitors, security officers and door staff at many Chicago-area buildings, currently opposes the development. The group wants a labor peace agreement with Onni, making it easier to organize staff at the company’s Chicago buildings, before endorsing the massive development. Other unions in the construction trades support Onni’s proposal.
Ald. Walter Burnett, 27th, chair of the Zoning Committee, said he had held off holding a vote on Onni’s proposal ever since the Chicago Plan Commission approved it last June, hoping the parties would forge an agreement.
“Everybody, they’re playing chicken, we’re in the middle of a chicken game,” he said Tuesday.
The development site is in Burnett’s ward, and he supported it at the 2024 Plan Commission meeting.
Onni Group is using a rare procedure, authorized by a 2022 zoning reform, that allows some developers proposing large amounts of affordable housing to sidestep the Zoning Committee and secure a full City Council vote. The company sent a letter on April 21 to Burnett requesting the committee take up the proposal, called Halsted Landing. If no action is taken in 60 days, it gets a vote at the June 20 City Council meeting.
The Zoning Committee is scheduled to meet next Tuesday, but according to the published agenda, it’s a special meeting where members will discuss an environmental ordinance backed by Mayor Brandon Johnson and no votes will be taken.
Richard Klawiter, a DLA Piper attorney representing Onni, outlined for committee members the benefits of giving the project a green light. In addition to the much-needed affordable housing, Onni would contribute about $26 million to city programs such as the Neighborhood Opportunity Fund, eventually pay tens of millions in property taxes, and create thousands of construction jobs.
The company had agreed to the union’s demand for a neutrality agreement but balked at providing contact information for employees, including names and addresses, and the Zoning Committee was not the place to settle the yearlong dispute, Klawiter said.
“This is not the National Labor Relations Board, but rather, the Committee on Zoning,” he said.
A union spokesperson on Tuesday said SEIU Local 1 does not have a comment at this time.
There was some confusion during the committee hearing. When Onni’s proposal came up for discussion, Burnett was in the room behind council chambers speaking with Jason Lee, a senior adviser to Johnson. Council members typically defer to the local alderman when it comes to development decisions, a tradition known as “aldermanic prerogative,” and several said they were reluctant to discuss the matter.
“I would recommend we hold this until we hear from the chairman,” said Ald. Anthony Beale, 9th.
Burnett returned only after discussion on the development was paused, ran through the rest of the meeting’s agenda, but then adjourned the meeting without recalling Onni’s proposal.
The Onni Group did not immediately return a message seeking comment.
The 2022 zoning reform, known as the Connected Communities Ordinance, overhauled city zoning law. It allows developers proposing large amounts of affordable housing in high-cost areas such as River West another way to secure approvals if they hit political roadblocks. They need to hold a community meeting in the affected neighborhood, which Onni did in January, and send a letter to the Zoning Committee chair requesting a vote, starting the 60-day timetable.
Sterling Bay is the only other developer to choose this route. It held a community meeting in January in Lincoln Park, and said it wanted to use Connected Communities to secure approval for its plan to construct 615 units in a pair of skyscrapers at 1840 N. Marcey St. near the CTA’s Red Line. Local Ald. Scott Waguespack, 32nd, has said he opposes the project because many neighbors say it’s out-of-scale with the surrounding neighborhood.
Burnett was coy after the Zoning Committee meeting about whether he would support Onni next month, or whether enough council members would be willing to buck the unions.
“I don’t know what the City Council is doing,” he said. “The unions are lobbying everybody. So, people are conflicted. Everybody hopes they can work it out.”
