Naked City

No one knows whether it was the spirit of the season or the fear of God that moved Hyde Park Baptist Church last week when it agreed -- against all expectations and daunting odds -- to meet with neighbors of its proposed five-story parking garage to renegotiate a zoning overlay that allows the massive structures to be built in the middle of the historic neighborhood. Whatever the reason, neighborhood activists were thrilled with the unexpected armistice, which many thought would never come without direct city intervention.

Under the terms of the settlement, negotiated just hours before a specially called City Council meeting that was to occur last Thursday, the church agreed not to file a site plan for its parking garage, which would tower over neighboring houses and cover most of a city block, until Friday, Jan. 28. In the meantime, the church agreed to meet with representatives of the Hyde Park Neighborhood Association and the Alliance to Save Hyde Park (the neighborhood group largely responsible for brokering the deal) to revisit and renegotiate zoning for the area.

The current Hyde Park Civic Neighborhood Conservation Combining District (NCCD) -- essentially a zoning overlay defining what can and can't be built in the area -- allows construction of the parking garage, education building, and more surface parking in the neighborhood. In its present form, which neighbors say doesn't match the Conceptual Plan they agreed to in 1990, the NCCD covers only a narrow stretch of Hyde Park Baptist property; a renegotiated NCCD could bring the entire neighborhood under a single set of development guidelines.

HPBC lawyer Richard Suttle said the agreement was the best option available to the church, which has come under increasing pressure from neighborhood activists and council members to rethink its development plans. "We're doing this because we believe this is the right thing to do ... " Suttle said. "We're all concerned about this, and we believe it will lead to productive discussions, and it's something we can definitely live with."