Steven Vance

Yet another developer is becoming prolific at creating mixed-used, transit-oriented developments. Mark Sutherland has proposed a new TOD building called 710 Grand, first revealed by Curbed in August, at 710 W. Grand Ave., one block east of the Grand Blue Line station in the River West neighborhood. This will be the third TOD building in Sutherland's Wicker Park Apartments portfolio. The project requires a zoning change and it's one of several proposed developments that will be considered at this Thursday's Chicago Plan Commission meeting.

Metra wants to lock in its 66-year-old train car design for another 30 years. The agency, which hasn't yet adopted a strategic plan that it started writing four years ago, seems to adhere to a policy of "if it ain't broke don't fix it." The problem is that they don't realize that things are indeed broken.

At yesterday's quarterly meeting of the Mayor's Pedestrian Advisory Council, Chicago Department of Transportation commissioner Rebekah Scheinfeld mentioned the "somber" statistics that there was a significant increase in Chicago pedestrian fatalities in 2015 compared to previous years.

The Chicago City Council passed the first comprehensive transit-oriented development ordinance in 2013, and the first buildings to take advantage of that law, which reduced the minimum parking requirement and allowed smaller or more units in buildings near CTA and Metra stations, are now being built. Some of them will open to new residents this year.

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Yesterday, the Chicago Plan Commission approved River North-based developer Vequity's proposal for a new transit-oriented development in Bucktown. This puts the plan for a six-story building with 44 units and ten car parking spaces at 1920 N. Milwaukee Ave. on track for approval by the full City Council. However, it didn't happen without a heated debate about the lack of on-site affordable housing in the project.

A proposal for a transit-oriented development in Bucktown is going before the Chicago Plan Commission for approval this Thursday. River North-based developer Vequity wants to build a six-story residential tower with minimal parking at the southeast corner of Milwaukee and Western avenues in Bucktown, right next door to the Western stop on the Blue Line's O'Hare branch.

A dozen neighborhood organizations, along with the Active Transportation Alliance and the Center for Neighborhood Technology, are calling for the Metra Electric line, with its three branches that run through several South Side communities, to operate like a CTA 'L' line.

Last week, Yonah Freemark and I published a new map called Transit Explorer, which shows all of the new transit projects that are under construction, or being planned, across United States, Mexico, and Canada.

Property developer Zack Cupkovic said he didn't really discover Goose Island until four years ago, even though he grew up in the nearby Lakeview neighborhood. The man-made island was created in 1857, when the North Branch canal was completed on the east side of the land mass, separating it from the mainland. When you drive across the island on Division Street, Cupkovic said, "it barely seems like you're going over an island."