Yes, Ladies and Gentlemen, you read that right. Last night, at the conclusion of a two and a half hour meeting between Ald. Doherty, the 41st Ward Zoning Advisory Board, about 50 residents of the subdivision north of Touhy Ave in North Edgebrook, and the owner of 6000 W Touhy Ave, Gus Tountas, along with his architect, his attorney, and a representative from L A Fitness, the Advisory Board (almost) unanimously voted in favor of downzoning the property at 6000 W Touhy Ave. from its current zoning of B3-1 to B1-1 (one or two board members were absent).

The vote was preceded by a spirited debate, during which the residents and the advisory board for the first time learned about some of the details of the proposed 288-car garage structure. Mr. Tountas’ architect explained that the plan calls for two levels of parking below grade, and one story above grade, with the top of the street level to be used as a parking deck (essentially, four levels of parking). The proposed L A Fitness facility would be intended to operate between the hours of 5 am and 12 am (*GASP*). Advisory board member Dick McDowell eloquently expressed that he was primarily interested in a solution that would be acceptable to both the residents of the subdivision, as well as to Mr. Tountas. To that end, he suggested that Mr. Tountas close off the Meade Ave. ingress/egress point to 6000 W. Touhy, and utilize the Center Point Road entrance/exit exclusively. This suggestion was not acceptable to Mr. Tountas. All in all, the dog and pony show presentation that Mr. Tountas’ architect delivered to sell the project to the advisory board was long on aesthetics of the proposed structure, but ultimately short on substance to convince the board to recommend maintaining the current zoning of B3-1. Mainly, no satisfactory answers could be provided to the board when asked about access plans to the garage structure by emergency department vehicles.

Kudos to the residents whose collective time, effort and preparation led to this victory, however, I am almost tempted to say “a day late, and a dollar short”, because my understanding as a legal layman is that since the permit process for this proposed garage was already in process prior to the impending downzoning decision by Ald. Doherty, the project would be “grandfathered”. The application itself is still under review on various points in the Zoning and Planning Departments. But should the application pass all requirements, Mr. Tountas would potentially be free to proceed with his plans (someone please correct me, if I’m wrong here). Upon conclusion of the meeting, one of the residents observed Mr. Tountas storming out of the meeting room, defiantly proclaiming: “The garage will be built!”

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