Corruption of landmarking.
So in this election season, has anyone heard about how the Obamas got their house?
Recall that Michelle Obama used to sit on the Landmarks commission board for the City?
The doctor who previously owned her home had petitioned for a permit to sell a designated Historical Georgian revival home built in 1910 with four fireplaces, glass-door bookcases fashioned from Honduran mahogany, and a 1,000-bottle wine cellar owned by a doctor in Kenwood.
He wanted to try to partition the property the house sits on so that he could separately sell the house and the lot adjoining it. To do that, since he was landmarked, he had to get permission from the Landmarks commission before it could ever get to zoning/planning.
The commission sat on the permit. And sat. And sat.
One day, Obama and Tony Rezko toured the property. Magically, when the Obamas decided to buy the property with Tony Rezko's wife, in March 2005 (this is at the same time that Tony himself was pleading poverty as to why he couldn't pay court judgments against him), the partition was approved. Michelle Obama resigned her seat on the commission. The Obamas closed on the property in June 2005, for $1.65 million dollars, $300,000 less than the asking price. Tony Rezko's wife purchased the newly divided sub-plot for the full price of $625,000 and closed on the same day. The Rezko plot is not buildable. It is a non-conforming size, and thus would require a major zoning regulation exemption.
Interesting, isn't it, that Obama got the house for 300K less than the asking price, while Rita Rezko paid the full price for a lot that can't be developed? Can only be entered via a gate on the Obama property?
Now, let's also talk about zoning issues. The property was zoned RS1. This means the house the Obamas bought required 6,250 sq. ft of area, lots of open space setbacks, etc. Did the Obamas have to comply? Well, it does not comply if the Rezko's property doesn't count as part of their lot.
The Chicago Way.
And people still continue to ask my why I'm not in favor of landmarking the pretty buildings. Go ahead and preserve the pretty buildings. It's the government corruption that I loathe.
Not exactly hope and change.
posted by The Grants @ 9:41 AM
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