ComEd’s proposed one-acre substation in Lincoln Park is drawing the ire of neighbors, some of whom have formed a group in an attempt to block the project.
The utility wants to build the substation at 1111 W. Diversey Parkway, which used to be a COVID-19 testing facility. Prior to that, it was a car dealership. ComEd purchased the site for $11.5 million in 2021, Cook County property records show.
ComEd CEO Gil Quiniones said the new substation would help increase capacity and reliability on the North Side. A ComEd spokesperson said Lincoln Park in particular has seen immense residential growth over the last 10 years, driving up power demand.
But the Diversey Community Coalition, a neighborhood group created in response to ComEd’s proposal, questions why the substation needs to be built, when it could instead be sold to a developer that would build homes..
The site is also about 735 feet from the Diversey CTA station, making it an equitable transit-oriented development site. Streets within half a mile of a CTA or Metra train station or quarter of a mile of a qualifying CTA bus line are eligible for a transit-oriented development designation, which encourages walkable and high-density projects by offering grants and reduced development costs, according to the city.
“We need housing. We need people to be able to get places easily and live in a place that they can plant roots in,” Jim Maggio, who helped form the coalition, said. “The prices of everything are rising because there’s not enough supply. The purpose of putting equitable transit development housing in — multiunit residential or mixed-use with some retail on the first floor — is to add supply and to add units that are affordable for people.”
Maggio formed the coalition alongside other neighbors, including long-time Lincoln Park resident Marie Poppy, after attending a spring meeting held by ComEd, where the proposal was discussed. Maggio said he and others left with “a bad taste in our mouths.”
“The atmosphere was, ‘Hey, this is a done deal. We’re telling you about it just to be nice,’” Maggio said. “People start asking questions, and [ComEd] couldn’t provide a lot of detail on what they were doing.”
Neighbors also shared concerns about the substation’s location in a largely residential area, with several schools and a daycare nearby.
Ald. Timmy Knudsen’s (43rd) newsletter from April said ComEd can build the substation by-right because it’s considered a “minor utility.” But Knudsen, alongside Ald. Bennett Lawson (44th) and Ald. Scott Waguespack (32nd), believe the project should be considered a major utility, which would require a more in-depth approval process.
The three alders sent a letter last month to Zoning Administrator Patrick Murphey asking for a written interpretation of how the project will be classified.
Knudsen, in partnership with state Sen. Sara Feigenholtz (IL-6), proposed coordinated state and city legislation that would require more oversight and community involvement in “major infrastructure proposals” where projects are larger than 0.5 acres. The state bill failed in the recently-wrapped spring legislative session, but Knudsen’s ordinance is still subject to a vote.
“1111 W. Diversey is a rare large lot in the middle of a dense, high-demand residential area — adjacent to a school and next to an ADA-accessible CTA station,” Knudsen said in a May 26 news release. “Housing should be built at a site like this, and that’s not just my opinion, but the goal of city policy like the Connected Communities Ordinance, which prioritizes housing and mixed-use development near transit.”
Quiniones said this week he’s confident a “win-win” solution can be found.
“We’re engaging with all of the stakeholders and the elected officials to make sure that we find a solution that works for them,” Quiniones said. “It is needed. Electricity use is growing, and there’s a need to … make the system more reliable and resilient as well over the long term. But we do understand that it has to work and fit within the requirements of the community.”
The Diversey Community Coalition is focusing on spreading the word about the project, Maggio and Poppy said. They’ll have a community meeting to discuss the substation at the Olson Auditorium in Advocate Health Masonic Hospital on Monday at 7 p.m. Later this month, ComEd plans to host a community meeting.
“This used to be a commercial area — and it changed, and it all got changed to residential,” Poppy, who’s lived in Lincoln Park for more than 35 years, said. “I’ve seen a huge change in this neighborhood — all for the better over time, and it has been all kinds of different types of residential, which is what we are hoping for.”