Former U.S. Rep. Dan Rostenkowski and members of his family have begun cashing in on property they own on Chicago�s North Side, property whose value in one case sharply increased after a rezoning was pushed through the City Council by a prot�g� of his…

Breaking with his usual practice, [Alderman] Matlak did not notify the Bucktown [Community Organization] of the proposed rezoning of the Rostenkowski property, Mr. Lipe [president of BCO] says. In fact, when Mr. Lipe last summer asked Mr. Matlak�s office about the status of the long-vacant property, “They said, as far as they knew, nothing was going on.”

[Crain’s this week]

These doings are not quite illegal, but there’s no other way to explain the underhanded upzoning. The upzone increases FAR from 2.2 to 3.0, allowing 36% more floor area: four floors instead of three. Damen Avenue in Bucktown is solidly two to three stories, except for the southernmost reaches — five blocks south of the parcel in question.

Ugh. At least the residents of that fourth-floor condo will have nasty views of the Kennedy Expressway from their front windows.