Published 11/18/2002 in Crain's Chicago Business
Author: James B. Arndorfer

Manufacturers in Chicago are seeking relief from Mayor Richard M. Daley's beautification campaign. A coalition of manufacturing groups will meet with city officials in the coming weeks to press for modifications in city landscaping rules that require them to erect wrought-iron fences around parking lots, plant trees and otherwise spruce up their properties. They say the requirements could cost small manufacturers tens of thousands of dollars apiece and eliminate parking spots.

"It doesn't make sense for a widget maker or a scrap metal company in an industrial area to have the same landscaping requirements for their parking lots as a grocery store in Lincoln Park," says Joyce Shanahan, executive director of the Industrial Council of Nearwest Chicago and leader of the ad hoc committee of about 10 groups, who adds that she has been raising the issue with city aldermen.

The coalition hasn't formulated specific demands but hopes to work with the city to find ways to alter the ordinance to give companies in industrial areas more wiggle room.  For example, landscaped setbacks might not be necessary for factories in areas with little foot traffic, Ms. Shanahan says.  Or companies could focus landscaping efforts on unused corners of lots. 

"We've heard their views and we plan on meeting with them," says a spokesman for the city's Department of Planning and Development, adding that the city zoning administrator has the power to grant exceptions to the landscaping requirements on a case-by-case basis. 

The dispute is just the latest in a series of controversies pitting old-line manufacturers against a City Hall that sometimes seems to prize aesthetics over industry.

Holding factories in gritty industrial corridors to the same landscaping standards as merchants in residential areas could spur more companies to leave the city, industrial groups warn. 

"It's another regulation that companies look at and say  "That's another reason to get out of the city,"" says Michael Cevasco, executive director of the Kedzie Elston Business and Industrial Council, and members of the coalition pressing the issue.  "It's sure to drive some companies out of the city."

Proponents of loosening standards point to the experience of Reliable Plating Corp. President James R. Greenwell.  After a lot he owns at the intersection of Lake Street and Ashland Avenue was cited in 1999 for failing to comply with landscaping standards, he spent two years going back and forth with the city to get the roughly 80-by-150 foot parcel into shape.

Ultimately, he set the lot back 14 feet from the sidewalk on the Ashland side and planted six trees.  He also replaced the chain-link fence with wrought-iron and planted bushes and ground cover.  Total cost: about $70,000 and the loss of 13 of 46 parking spots.  "(City officials) weren't flexible," says Mr. Greenwell, who split the costs with a nearby substance abuse center that leases the lot.  "We need to have an (easing) of landscaping requirements in industrial areas."

Under city rules, parking lots are required to have a seven-foot-wide landscaped perimeter, a continuous screening hedge and in large lots, trees.

While it's unclear how many companies have run afoul of landscaping standards, industrial groups are concerned more business owners could find themselves in Mr. Greenwell's situation, particularly  as more parking lots will come under scrutiny in the years ahead.

For instance, the ordinance requires all existing parking lots in the city with more than 100 parking spaces to add ornamental metal fencing along public rights-of-way by 2004.  Existing lots with more than four spots have until 2006.  New lots must be built with the fencing.

Mr. Greenwell, who says he has spend about $600 this year tending to his greenery, says there's room in industrial areas for beautification so long as it comes at a reasonable cost in terms of dollars and parking slots.

"If something looks nice, it's not going to get trashed, he says.