A vacant car scrapyard on the northwest edge of Austin could soon give way to a five-story apartment building with 36 units, eight of them designated affordable, just south of where North Cicero Avenue meets West Grand Avenue. The site sits a short walk from the Grand/Cicero Metra station, putting new residents within reach of the Milwaukee District West Line.
According to Chicago YIMBY, local developer 1749 NCA LLC is working with Barry Architecture on the design, which calls for a red and gray panel exterior with brick covering the lower level and cantilevered balconies jutting from the upper floors. The building would rise from a one-story podium spanning most of the 18,300-square-foot site, with a small residential entrance, tenant storage space, and a 34-vehicle parking garage tucked behind it, accessed off the north and west alleys. Official Chicago City Clerk records show the project was submitted under Matter ID E4E22B29-E9B5-F111-AAAC-001DD80FDA55, seeking zoning relief to convert the parcel from its industrial junk-yard use, as detailed on the SkyscraperPage Forum.
Unit Mix And Affordability Requirements
Per the same Chicago YIMBY report, the building would include 12 one-bedroom units, 20 two-bedroom units, and four three-bedroom units, ranging from roughly 700 to 1,390 square feet. Eight of the 36 apartments are set aside as affordable housing, a requirement that traces back to Chicago’s 2021 Affordable Requirements Ordinance, which mandates that residential projects of 10 or more units seeking a zoning change set aside 10% to 20% of units for households earning at or below 60% of Area Median Income, according to Root Realty.
Those affordable units carry additional design obligations. Under Chicago Building Code accessibility mandates and updated ARO regulations, at least 20% of units in multi-family developments must meet Type A accessible design standards, and every ARO-designated affordable unit must meet that same Type A threshold, per Burnham Nationwide. That standard provides enhanced accessibility features for residents with mobility disabilities beyond baseline Fair Housing Act requirements.
A Junkyard’s Path To Residential Use
Converting a former auto scrap yard into housing is not simply a matter of pouring a new foundation. The City of Chicago Department of Housing notes that such conversions require environmental soil testing and enrollment in the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency’s Site Remediation Program before a developer can obtain a residential No Further Remediation letter, since sites once used for automotive salvage or heavy commercial storage often need mitigation or engineered barriers to ensure safe residential occupation…