GlobeSt.com UPDATE: Wrigley Field's Future Could Be Mixed-Use

A triangular piece of land along Clark Street is zoned M-1-1. While manufacturing is unlikely to be allowed at the property the city is attempting to designate as a landmark, up to 21,870 sf of manufacturing use is allowed in the C-2-2 zoning that applies to the 7.7-acre site where the 89-year-old ballpark stands. The 38-foot height limit could accommodate a three-story building. However, the city's entire zoning code is being rewritten, and maps governing specific land uses will be redrawn later this year.

Attorney Theodore Novak indicates the team will soon attempt to take a "much more comprehensive approach" to plans at the ballpark, which would include community input.

While the Cubs' threat that they may be forced to abandon the second-oldest ballpark in the major leagues has drawn skepticism if not disbelief, Lakeview property owners are taking it seriously. "The biggest fear is, that by landmarking the stadium, it will turn it into an obsolete white elephant," says architect Kurt Volkman, representing a Wrigleyville neighborhood group. "When you look at all the stadiums being built around the country, you realize how much change is a part of sports."

The Cubs argue landmark designation would handcuff their attempts to make changes at the ballpark, including relatively minor housekeeping such as replacing ivy on the outfield walls. Department of planning and development commissioner Alicia Berg counters that more than 90% of permits involving landmarked property are approved within two days. Volkman suggests that is not his experience.

"To sit two weeks for a permit to come through, it can make or break a project," he adds.

Meanwhile, the Cubs' fight against the landmark designation, as well as their quest to add 2,000 additional bleacher seats, is being watched closely in Boston, says Red Sox VP of planning and development Janet Marie Smith. After a decade of talk about moving from Fenway Park, Wrigley Field's elder by two years, the team and city are working together to keep the Red Sox where they have been for 91 years, she says.

"A team's competitiveness in many ways is defined by its facility," says Smith, an architect and planner called by the team to testify at Wednesday's Commission on Chicago Landmarks public hearing. "Otherwise, you wouldn't find as many teams building new ones."

In the Cubs' National League Central division, competitors in Cincinnati, Houston, Milwaukee and Pittsburgh are playing in new stadiums built for a combined cost of $1 billion, says Cubs president and chief executive officer Andrew B. MacPhail, much of it with public money. The Cubs' other divisional rival, the St. Louis Cardinals, also are working with the city on plans for a new stadium.

"We ask for nothing," MacPhail says. "All we ask is to be left alone to compete."