The good news: A professional soccer stadium may be coming to Chicago's South Loop.
The bad news: The current proposal would abandon previous plans for a new Red Line station and other sustainable transportation wins.
The new proposal
Joe Mansueto, owner of the Chicago Fire Football Club, intends to construct a pro soccer arena in the South Loop, on land that was approved for The 78 planned development six years ago. Originally, the project was supposed to include some 10,000 residences in multiple buildings, but the football pitch is kicking a hole in that plan.
Rendering of the arena. Other renderings depict the land between the Chicago River and the stadium ultimately being converted into buildings and new outdoor spaces.
As such, The 78 owner Related Midwest is required to explain the curve ball to the Chicago Plan Commission. If that entity doesn't consider the changes to be foul play, the Chicago Fire will then need to score points with approval from the City's zoning committee, and the full City Council, or else their proposal will be given the boot.
Back in July, the developer and the team owner presented a zoning change application for the planned development, which was visible to the public because the Chicago City Clerk’s office posted it on its online database. You can view the approved proposal in this PD 1434 doc. Here's what was pitched:
- The arena would be built roughly between 13th and 14th streets.
- Adjacent Metra tracks would remain as-is, with no plan to "Bend [Them] Like Beckham." The tracks currently enter the site from the north around 185 feet west of Clark Street, and then slowly move to the west to cozy up to Clark. Originally there were plans to move the tracks to allow new roads to intersect with Clark.
- The PD subareas' border are reconfigured for the planners.
- The initial plan would have created Crescent Park, a central green space that would have followed the old river route, before the waterway was straightened between 18th and Polk streets in 1926.
- While the approved plan included a 75-foot riverwalk with a 25-foot "riverwalk amenity zone," the new proposal would shrink the walkway to 40 feet. An ordinance requires Chicago riverwalks to be at least 30 feet wide.
The current proposal for open space.
Pedestrians and bike riders would be able to access the arena from the north by heading south on Wells Street from Polk Street. They could get to the stadium from 18th Street by traveling north on Wentworth Avenue. And they could reach the football pitch from a newly built LaSalle Street, heading south from elevated Roosevelt Road. LaSalle is also how people coming from the Red, Green, and Orange lines via Roosevelt Station, as well as people riding buses on Roosevelt and Clark, would access the stadium.
However, people on foot and bikes would not be able to get to the arena from Clark and other streets east of it. Some residents of the Burnham Station and Dearborn Park neighborhoods probably consider that to be a feature, rather than a defect of the plan. Many of them opposed the original proposal for a new Red Line station at the southeast corner of 15th and Clark streets, and local Ald. Pat Dowell (3rd) came out against opening the 'L' stop at that intersection. The developer responded by moving the proposed 'L' location to inside The 78 boundaries.
The new proposal also includes a "publicly-owned" car parking garage in its first phase. The structure would be located south the Roosevelt Road.
Site plan showing the stadium and a publicly owned parking structure
Why the new design is unsustainable
A nearby resident, who said they had close knowledge of discussions of The 78 plan, contacted Streetsblog to express misgivings about the current plan. "There are a number of multimodal concerns that, in my view, have not been adequately addressed in mainstream media coverage," they said via email. "The development team indicated that they are no longer realigning the Metra tracks to open Clark Street, which limits any opportunity to have a robust transit-served future whether by a Red Line station or Metra (Rock Island Line) platform – a major departure from the original approved planned development."
"The existing (but yet to be opened) Wells-Wentworth Connector was designed to be a low-stress road but this new plan will put a lot of strain onto already-congested Roosevelt Road/LaSalle Street and 18th Street as the main throughfares in and out of the property," they added. "The lack of east-west roads (with the exception of 13th Street) for vehicular and pedestrian traffic will keep this area from integrating with the vibrancy of the surrounding neighborhoods."
"The development team has also referenced the possibility of a 'publicly owned lot,' though it is unclear whether TIF-funded parking lots are even permissible under existing regulations," they continued. "Additional issues remain regarding the riverwalk and the future phases of development, but to begin with, I would emphasize that site access has and will continue to be highly challenging. This challenge is compounded by the fact that, as a city, we have committed to advancing ETOD principles. Yet those commitments are not being meaningfully applied to the largest undeveloped property in Chicago."
"I will note that they said they are no longer doing the Metra realignment/CTA Red Line station because of costs, and that it conflicts with the desired 2028 opening season date," they said. "I don't understand why that year is so special, even though that is a very ambitious timeline to have a stadium fully built within two years."
"Yes, Metra might be hard to truly expedite but they have already entered an agreement with the City, so I find it hard to believe that Metra is backing away from this," the resident concluded. "They have also shared that they would have to redo parts of Wells-Wentworth. Sure, it's not ideal but if it means opening Clark Street for future opportunities, then it's worth doing. No longer doing expensive parts of the project seems like a major cop-out."
Next steps
There will likely still be an opportunity for local residents to push back against the elimination of many of The 78's previously proposed sustainable transportation upgrades. There will probably be a 3rd Ward town hall next month before the upcoming September 18 Plan Commission meeting. However it's not certain that the developer will give a presentation at the September 18 hearing.
Obviously, if The 78 is created without good walk/bike/transit access, it would be totally counterproductive to Mayor Brandon Johnson's stated goals of improving sustainable transportation in our city. So hopefully there will be an outcry over this issue that will result in a more people-friendly final design. That's the ultimate goal here.
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