This article originally appeared on Crain’s Chicago Business

The federal government has put at least a temporary brick on plans for the first major new housing development in many decades in the historic Pullman area on the Southeast Side.

Developers say they believe the setback is temporary, and they hope to break ground this spring.

At issue are plans by local developer David Doig and Minnesota-based Artspace to build 38 units of affordable housing for artists at 111th Street and Langley Avenue in the new Pullman National Monument. Twenty-six units would go on vacant space that once was the location of a large tenement building used as dormitory space for workers at George Pullman’s railroad car factory. The other 12 would be in two existing buildings that would be rehabbed.

Though the city backs the proposal, it has drawn a series of objections from a local civic group, the Pullman National Monument Preservation Society, which hired activist lawyer Tom Ramsdell to plead its case. The group has raised a series of objections about whether the project is compatible with the historic nature of the area, most recently suggesting that the tenement be rebuilt on foundations that in some stretches still are visible.

The group recently found success when the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development informed state and other local officials that the project needed a new, fuller review by the state of Illinois’ historic preservation officials and that no work could occur without it.

Doig, in a phone interview, said his group believed it had done due diligence, but the feds concluded otherwise. So the group will engage in further review, including a public hearing, in an effort to be “more conclusive and deliberate.”

Doig’s firm, Chicago Neighborhood Initiatives, a not-for-profit, is the developer of the proposed project, along with Artspace and a local firm, Pullman Arts. Doig said his financing has held together and “I’m not anticipating any problems.” If all goes as expected, “our plan is to start (construction) in the spring.”

Meanwhile, though, pending changes in tax law in Washington could eliminate the historic tax credits the development group has been counting on. Doig said his group hopes to avoid that problem by submitting needed paperwork before Dec. 31, when current tax laws will prevail.

Still, the preservation society sounds like it thinks it’s winning.

"We have long asserted that the historic reviews . . . were seriously flawed and potentially unlawful . . . It was approved with a wink and a nod."

President Mark Cassello said.

In view of the federal action, locals really ought to give more thought to rebuilding the original structure, Cassello added.