The combined public meeting for the Impact Advisory Group (IAG) and general meeting for the public for the proposed 1200 Soldiers Field Rd. project went off with little opposition last week, but with one potential surprise.

The proposal hasn’t changed since its earlier meeting this past spring, with the only substantial changes being some tightening up of the building massing. The proposal is for 58 units in six stories at the corner of Everett Street and Soldiers Field Road.

One resident asked why the parking-to-unit ratio is greater than what’s required, set at .8 spaces per unit now rather than the .6 as required by the Western Avenue Corridor Study and Rezoning (WACRZ) initiative.

Attorney representing developer Thunderdome LLC, Nick Zozula, said a previous project he worked with at Solders Field Place has 61 units and 49 spaces at .8. Thunderdome principal Jeffrey Feuerman said they’re still not able to rent the whole building because of a lack of parking.

“We’re doing everything possible; we’re leasing eight spaces up the road on Western Avenue to fill the rest of the units, because no one wants to rent a unit without parking,” he said. “I know people think less parking is better, and in this location, even though people do take a lot of public transportation and other opportunities with biking and so forth, people have cars.”

“I think less parking on this site would go a long way to keeping the units affordable,” the resident said.

Another issue that came up was that of rideshare, and resident and IAG member Christine Varriale asked if there was any progress on her request for some sort of area for rideshare and meal delivery.

“They’re probably not going to use the loading zone, they’re probably going to pull over on Everett Street, so no changes to that?” she said.

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Zozula said they will have wayfinding and a transportation access plan to try to mitigate that.

“We have taken note of that, but we didn’t want to something that maybe wouldn’t fly with other departments, but we’ve taken note of it and it’s something we’ve heard from you and others,” he said.

Amplify Gym owner and former American Ninja Warrior Contestant Mia Lazarewicz echoed Varriale’s concerns.

“I know we already talked about it, but as someone who spends all their days on Everett Street, the thought of Doordash constantly dropping things off makes my skin crawl.”

For more information on the proposal, go to https://gvimes.link/1200sldrfldrd