Pilsen considering plans for vacant 6-acre lot

Pilsen is getting closer to filling its largest vacant lot.

Area residents will attend a presentation and open house to learn more about plans to redevelop the lot at 18th and Peoria streets next week at Jungman Elementary, Block Club Chicago reported. The event will outline three different development plans for the lot, which is set to become affordable housing.

The open house will show options for where the buildings could be located on the lot as well as the size of the buildings and number of units that could be included. Options for open and green space in the development will also be discussed. Residents who can’t attend the meeting in person will be able to sit in virtually via Zoom.

City officials, including Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez, have been gathering public feedback since September and the majority of residents have been pushing for the site to include affordable housing, especially more family-sized units.

“We want to make sure residents have information on what affordable housing is, the history of the lot … and what is their vision and their need,” Sigcho-Lopez told the outlet. “There is also curiosity of how a potential [cooperative] could be implemented, as well.”

The future of the 6-acre lot has been hotly debated over the past few years. In 2018, developer Property Markets Group sued then-Ald. Danny Solis for rezoning the site from residential to industrial use, a move that essentially kneecapped development on the site. Solis’ rezoning was his attempt to make Property Markets change its proposal to build 500 apartments and a park without including affordable housing.

The Pilsen Alliance, of which Sigcho-Lopez is among the organizers, pushed back against the plans, including in 2019 when Property Markets tried to revisit the project.

The city approved the $12 million sale of the lot as part of a lawsuit with Property Markets.

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Chicago

City to buy largest vacant land in Pilsen, provide 280+ affordable housing units

— Victoria Pruitt