- Credibility:
NORTH LAWNDALE — City Council voted Wednesday to rezone 16 city-owned vacant lots in North Lawndale that will eventually be redeveloped as affordable single-family homes.
The initiative is part of a larger city partnership with the Lawndale Christian Development Center and Chicago Neighborhood Initiatives to expand affordable homeownership options in the neighborhood.
Each house will be sold for about $250,000, Brian O’Donnell, a Chicago Department of Housing staffer, said at a Tuesday meeting of the City Council’s zoning committee.
The rezoning of the lots was necessary to allow ground-floor residential to be built at each property, O’Donnell said.
The lot conversion plan started under Ald. Michael Scott (24th), who resigned from City Council in May. He was replaced in June by his sister, Monique Scott.
The plan received an outpouring of support from alderpeople at Tuesday’s zoning meeting, including Ald. Pat Dowell (3rd), who said she hopes the program will be a model for affordable homeownership in her South Side ward and across Chicago.
“I think this will be the first community where we can actually demonstrate that we can bring a home to market that’s under $350,000,” Dowell said. “I need to have that kind of housing in my ward. … I’m really excited to see how these homes are received, how they fit into the context of the North Lawndale community.”
Watch our “On The Block” TV show on The U, CW26 and MeTV.
Listen to “It’s All Good: A Block Club Chicago Podcast”:
