“The developer hasn’t put their plan on the table, [but] we’ve got a
good sense of what’s coming,” says Jim O’Halloran, chair of the
Roosevelt Neighborhood Association’s land-use committee. Roosevelt
neighbors are getting ready to fight a developer who wants to build a
massive multiuse project just south of Roosevelt High School on
Northeast 65th Street. Last month, local property owner Hugh Sisley
leased an entire block to the Roosevelt Development Group (RDG) for 99
years.
According to Department of Planning and Development spokesman Alan
Justad, RDG wants to build a block-long 10- to 12-story mixed-use
project, which would tower over the neighborhood. Building on that
scale would require a
rezone, which would have to be approved by
the city council.
At a community meeting on October 23, neighbors lashed out at an RDG
representative—Richard Milne—who refused to offer up much
information and repeatedly dodged questions about the project. “I’ll
tell you up front, they asked me to come and talk to you because I
don’t know a lot,” Milne told
the large crowd.
Indeed, RDG has been less than forthcoming about the details of the
development.
“We are still in the planning phase,” says Jon Breiner, RDG’s
manager. “It’s a big
project, and it’s not something that can be
pulled out of my hat.”
It’s not that Roosevelt is
opposed to big buildings. Neighbors
want to keep larger, six-story projects along 12th Avenue
Northeast—near a proposed light-rail station—and have
building heights incrementally “step down” on adjacent streets.
Currently, the tallest building in Roosevelt is six stories. “We
embrace reasonable density,” O’Halloran says. “We just feel density
should be concentrated at the central part of the neighborhood.”
O’Halloran is in talks with the developer, but he says they’re
threatening to let the block—currently, boarded-up houses
surrounded by a chain link fence—sit until the neighborhood
agrees to let the developer build over four stories. RGD denies they’ve
made any threats. 
