MCKINLEY PARK – Permits to demolish the Damen Silos had been issued final week, signaling the demise of the enduring buildings that some neighbors and officers hoped can be preserved.
Town’s Division of Buildings on Thursday issued the demolition permits for the Damen Silos, 2900 S. Damen Ave., information present. Demolition is ready to start after the Fourth of July weekend, Ald. Julia Ramirez (twelfth) mentioned on Fb.
The 5 demolition permits — one for every constructing on the location — had been accredited lower than every week after metropolis officers outlined a security and environmental plan for the silos’ elimination. That plan was criticized by some Southwest Facet neighbors at a neighborhood assembly, with neighbors highlighting environmental considerations and calling for the location to be preserved and redeveloped right into a public amenity, presumably as a pageant grounds.
The Damen Silos have been deserted since 1977 however have remained standing and have develop into one thing of a neighborhood landmark and vacation spot for city explorers and graffiti artists. They gained additional notoriety after being featured in 2014’s “Transformers: Age of Extinction.”
The silos had been offered in 2022 to MAT Restricted Partnership, whose proprietor additionally owns a controversial asphalt plant in McKinley Park. The corporate — which has not introduced redevelopment plans for the location — beforehand utilized for 5 permits to demolish the silos, together with one from the U.S. Military Corps of Engineers, which was accredited final 12 months.
The acquisition and subsequent demolition plans have confirmed unpopular amongst neighbors and neighborhood leaders.
In late June, officers and preservationists gathered outdoors the silos to advocate for plans to transform the silos into pageant grounds — akin to the Salt Shed — alongside public inexperienced area. The plan was conceived as half of a bigger effort to redevelop the closely industrial South Department of the Chicago River.
An actual property agency behind the Salt Shed’s redevelopment right into a live performance venue beforehand sought to purchase the silos, till the state offered them to MAT Restricted Companions, the best bidder.
The McKinley Park Growth Council put out a petition that has acquired over 900 signatures from involved neighbors who need the silos to remain up, the group mentioned in an announcement launched Thursday.
“We’re not finished advocating for neighborhood belongings on this website. Our neighbors deserve higher public inexperienced area and entry to the river,” the assertion learn.
Although she is “disenchanted” within the silos’ demolition, Ramirez mentioned neighbors will nonetheless have a say within the website’s future use.
“I’m disenchanted the personal proprietor of the location is not going to be saving the buildings to be repurposed for an adaptive reuse because the neighborhood has been advocating for,” Ramirez mentioned in an announcement. “I need guarantee the neighborhood that for any additional growth of the location will embrace a community-driven course of, required by the town’s Deliberate Growth course of.”
The silos is not going to be demolished by implosion or utilizing explosives, Marlene Hopkins, commissioner for the Division of Buildings, mentioned at a earlier neighborhood assembly.
As a substitute, all 5 buildings can be taken down piece-by-piece utilizing high-reach excavators and cranes. Barges can be positioned to guard the river from particles, Hopkins mentioned.
The buildings have been inspected for asbestos, lead and dangerous waste, Olusimbo “Simbo” Ige, commissioner for the Chicago Division of Public Well being, additionally mentioned on the assembly.
Measures can be in place to stop mud air pollution, officers mentioned. That’s a priority neighbors have repeatedly introduced ahead, citing the metropolis’s mishandling of the previous Crawford Smokestack in Little Village, which despatched a large mud cloud over the Southwest Facet on the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The U.S. Military Corp of Engineers has approved utilizing water from the river, which can be constantly sprayed whereas work is ongoing to stop mud from flying off the location.
Air monitoring stations can be put in to measure air air pollution ranges each quarter-hour. Town will monitor ranges of air pollution, generally known as PM10, in keeping with nationwide requirements set by the Environmental Safety Company, Ige mentioned.
The demolition course of is predicted to take six months, officers mentioned on the neighborhood assembly.
These precautions weren’t sufficient to fulfill some neighbors’ environmental considerations.
On the latest neighborhood assembly over the silos, neighbors raised air pollution and environmental racism considerations, saying the Southwest Facet is already overburdened with environmental hazards. Residents particularly raised considerations about pollution getting into the adjoining river.
Neighbors mentioned permitting a “serial polluter” to purchase the coveted website adjoining to the siver is one other instance of environmental racism that ignores neighbors’ voices. MAT Restricted’s sister firm, MAT Asphalt, beforehand paid out $1.2 million at school motion settlements after neighbors’ alleged the McKinley Park plant induced noxious odors and polluted the realm.
Residents protested the asphalt plant’s opening and mentioned it will contribute to environmental issues on the Southwest Facet.
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