BusHunter Posted July 3, 2014 Report Share Posted July 3, 2014 I was searching through the ordinances and I came up with this. http://www.transitchicago.com/assets/1/ordinances/014-58.pdf After a little googling, I found out 5225 N. kedzie belongs to Foster Bank. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Busjack Posted July 3, 2014 Report Share Posted July 3, 2014 I was searching through the ordinances and I came up with this. http://www.transitchicago.com/assets/1/ordinances/014-58.pdf After a little googling, I found out 5225 N. kedzie belongs to Foster Bank. Except now it is BBCN Bank. Since the reference is to vacant property, it doesn't look like the bank building (which the BBCN* site indicates is at 5235 N. Kedzie). Streetview indicates the driveway behind McDonald's. Either way, doesn't look like much land. _______ *Put 5200 N. Kedzie Chicago IL in the search box. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BusHunter Posted July 3, 2014 Author Report Share Posted July 3, 2014 Except now it is BBCN Bank. Since the reference is to vacant property, it doesn't look like the bank building (which the BBCN* site indicates is at 5235 N. Kedzie). Streetview indicates the driveway behind McDonald's. Either way, doesn't look like much land. _______ *Put 5200 N. Kedzie Chicago IL in the search box. Interesting that they mention an L shaped piece of land (1.2 acres) I didn't know the former Foster bank owned or leased part of that strip mall. It almost sounds like they are wanting that entire piece. I guess the key lies in how big is an acre? Google says that an acre is 48,000 sq. feet or 91 percent of the size of a football field, so it seems to be more than just a driveway to me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jajuan Posted July 3, 2014 Report Share Posted July 3, 2014 Perhaps they're seeking a way for buses have an additional entranceway into the garage by way of Kedzie in addition to the existing one that leads to Foster. It actually could be useful in resolving the traffic mess on Foster all those NP buses waiting to pull into the garage as a weekday PM rush period has wound down tends to create on Foster. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BusHunter Posted July 3, 2014 Author Report Share Posted July 3, 2014 They could just have so many artics they ran out of space to put them. This project to me seems to say that they want to have space for even more artics. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jajuan Posted July 3, 2014 Report Share Posted July 3, 2014 They could just have so many artics they ran out of space to put them. This project to me seems to say that they want to have space for even more artics. Or maybe just seeking breathing space for the artics it already has. It already puts artics on all its busier routes except the maybe its share of the 49, which it did have a few artics on those runs for a brief time before the Red Line South project and artics were needed for the replacement shuttles but didn't seem to return to after the project was over. Outside of that, I'm not sure where North Park would put more artics. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Busjack Posted July 3, 2014 Report Share Posted July 3, 2014 ...I guess the key lies in how big is an acre? Google says that an acre is 48,000 sq. feet or 91 percent of the size of a football field, so it seems to be more than just a driveway to me. An acre is exactly 1/10th city block. Most sources state that an acre is 43,560 square feet. If we assume 8 city blocks to a lineal mile, each one is 660 feet long (5280/8; also that's why you have 66 numbers on the usual block), that's 435,600. Another way you can get to that conclusion is that there are 640 acres to a square mile. Again assuming 8 blocks to a mile, a square mile would contain 64 blocks. Hence, jajuan's conclusion that they want another driveway to Kedzie makes the most sense.They aren't going to park much of any articulated buses on 1/8th of a block. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BusHunter Posted October 13, 2014 Author Report Share Posted October 13, 2014 Went by North Park garage a week or two ago and the Foster bank is demolished. Now they have an ordinance to expand onto CPS property up at North Side College Prep in trade for land outside Walter Payton high school. I wonder if this means demolition of the defunct tracks there between Hill and Wendell streets. http://www.transitchicago.com/assets/1/ordinances/014-101.pdf Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
strictures Posted October 13, 2014 Report Share Posted October 13, 2014 Went by North Park garage a week or two ago and the Foster bank is demolished. Now they have an ordinance to expand onto CPS property up at North Side College Prep in trade for land outside Walter Payton high school. I wonder if this means demolition of the defunct tracks there between Hill and Wendell streets. http://www.transitchicago.com/assets/1/ordinances/014-101.pdf Instead of demolishing the outer tracks on the church turn, why not re-engineer the turn & use that part of the structure to increase the turn radiuses? Not so much to increase the speed around the church, but to reduce the wear on the rails & flanges. Even better would be to pay the cost of lifting up & moving the church to the other side of Orleans St. & straighten the tracks out while there's still empty land over there. But common sense & planning for the future have never been part of the CTA's culture. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Busjack Posted October 13, 2014 Report Share Posted October 13, 2014 Went by North Park garage a week or two ago and the Foster bank is demolished. Now they have an ordinance to expand onto CPS property up at North Side College Prep in trade for land outside Walter Payton high school. I wonder if this means demolition of the defunct tracks there between Hill and Wendell streets. http://www.transitchicago.com/assets/1/ordinances/014-101.pdf It seems like CTA was mixing and matching apples and oranges, but maybe that was necessary for the swap of easements* (which is all this involves). It is clear that the Payton one is solely so that CPS can use CTA property as a fire lane. It implies nothing else, such as moving the tracks. In return for that, CTA apparently gets to use a bit of the property belonging to CPS at North Side Prep. If Foster Bank is gone,** that is something else. Maybe that was encompassed by the ordinance described above with regard to the one acre at 5225 N. Kedzie. ________ *Apparently not even that, as the ordinance speaks in terms of license, which is not a property right. **It sure looks the case on Google Maps; Streetview. Based on the Streetview,BBCN Bank is in the strip mall next to the subject, not where Foster Bank was. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BusHunter Posted October 13, 2014 Author Report Share Posted October 13, 2014 It seems like CTA was mixing and matching apples and oranges, but maybe that was necessary for the swap of easements* (which is all this involves). It is clear that the Payton one is solely so that CPS can use CTA property as a fire lane. It implies nothing else, such as moving the tracks. Yeah but wouldn't the track structure sit on the fire lane proposed land. Then I'm assuming by city ordinance that has to be so wide so fire apparatus can fit down the lane. Also they would have to have room to maneuver there equipment hoses etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Busjack Posted October 13, 2014 Report Share Posted October 13, 2014 Yeah but wouldn't the track structure sit on the fire lane proposed land. Then I'm assuming by city ordinance that has to be so wide so fire apparatus can fit down the lane. Also they would have to have room to maneuver there equipment hoses etc. It would be up to CTA and CPS lawyers to figure out that one. I assume they did, or CPS would not have entered into the transaction. One would assume that if there were any need for track relocation, the ordinance would have mentioned it. For instance, when there was the deal to build the school at 55th and St. Louis, there was an explicit provision about CTA getting a driveway around the school for a bus turn. The main hindrance to commenting more on this and the other real estate deals is that all the counts are the plats (maps) and legal descriptions, but while the ordinances refer to them, they are not attached to the web versions. Thus, for instance, it is legally irrelevant whether the Foster Bank Building was 5225 or 5235 N. Kedzie, but if the plat were attached to the web version of the ordinance, we would definitively know what was intended. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BusHunter Posted October 13, 2014 Author Report Share Posted October 13, 2014 Well the CPS North Side site stipulates that CTA will gain 20 feet of land, so I'm assuming that how big this fire lane is at Payton. The Payton project seems to be in conjunction with a field expansion there. I don't know what CTA intends to do with there 20 feet they received for North Park, but now they have two expansions in the works at NP and two at Forest Glen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Busjack Posted October 13, 2014 Report Share Posted October 13, 2014 Well the CPS North Side site stipulates that CTA will gain 20 feet of land, so I'm assuming that how big this fire lane is at Payton. ... Nothing says that consideration has to be equal, and in this case, the ordinance said that Payton was getting a license to use .28 acres of land, while NP is getting a license to use an approximately 20 foot wide piece of land of .16 acres, and also that CTA is already using the land as part of the NP garage operation (6th Whereas). So, there isn't any expansion of the NP operation in that regard. IF CPS and CTA were not incestuous siblings, maybe CPS should have evicted CTA. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Busjack Posted February 7, 2017 Report Share Posted February 7, 2017 Item on the agenda to acquire 5323 North Kedzie, Chicago, Illinois. Looks like it is a house near the driveway to the maintenance building with a for sale sign (Streetview). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BusHunter Posted February 8, 2017 Author Report Share Posted February 8, 2017 20 hours ago, Busjack said: Item on the agenda to acquire 5323 North Kedzie, Chicago, Illinois. Looks like it is a house near the driveway to the maintenance building with a for sale sign (Streetview). Maybe they want to expand the outdoor areas of the maintenance building like where they hold buses and stuff. The 3rd yard at Forest Glen works kind of well in relation to it's maintenance building. Plus it's out of the way and not blocking out anything. I would say maybe they moved the FG one due to emissions concerns from the neighbors, but the 3rd yard one is close to residential areas too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Busjack Posted February 8, 2017 Report Share Posted February 8, 2017 8 minutes ago, BusHunter said: Maybe they want to expand the outdoor areas of the maintenance building like where they hold buses and stuff. The 3rd yard at Forest Glen works kind of well in relation to it's maintenance building. Plus it's out of the way and not blocking out anything. I would say maybe they moved the FG one due to emissions concerns from the neighbors, but the 3rd yard one is close to residential areas too. This only looks like enough to widen the driveway. On the third yard at FG issue, while they picked up that space, it still doesn't look like CTA did anything to raze the Pyramid Bldg. and the Garden Center (at least as of when I was out there), which would really pick up some space. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BusHunter Posted February 8, 2017 Author Report Share Posted February 8, 2017 2 hours ago, Busjack said: This only looks like enough to widen the driveway. On the third yard at FG issue, while they picked up that space, it still doesn't look like CTA did anything to raze the Pyramid Bldg. and the Garden Center (at least as of when I was out there), which would really pick up some space. With the zoning sign on the pyramid building perhaps there is some kind of problem in changing the zoning. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Busjack Posted February 9, 2017 Report Share Posted February 9, 2017 2 hours ago, BusHunter said: With the zoning sign on the pyramid building perhaps there is some kind of problem in changing the zoning. The only signs I saw was the number of the responsible CTA official for the vacant building. What did the zoning signs say? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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