Developers are going back to the drawing board after withdrawing an application at Monday’s Evanston City Council meeting to build an eight-story apartment building at 1930 Ridge Ave.
The building’s developer, Evanston Realty Partners, made significant changes to the building plan during a special Planning and Development Committee meeting Friday.
The changes included shortening the project’s height to four stories and moving the planned above-ground parking lot below ground, council members said Monday.
“We learned a lot of new data,” said Ald. Melissa Wynne (3rd), acting chairwoman of the committee. “Now we’re back to planning.”
Originally designed as an 11-story building, the project met opposition from council and community members this summer.
Ald. Joseph Kent (5th), whose ward contains the property, said earlier in September that the proposed building did not fit with the character of the community.
The site, formerly home to a Whole Foods Market, recently has been used as a parking lot.
Although community members spoke out against the project in recent council meetings, many area businesses support the new development on the northwest corner of downtown Evanston.
“I support it wholeheartedly,” said Hecky Powell, owner of Hecky’s Barbecue, 1902 Green Bay Road. “I mean, look at downtown. They are really rockin’. That’s because there are condos and buildings going up. It’s good for the community.”
Powell said the neighborhood needs to catch up with a growing downtown and with new developments in north and south Evanston.
“The only way to help an underdeveloped area is to develop it,” Powell said Monday. “Things do not remain the same, they grow and change.”
Powell, who was elected to the Evanston/Skokie District 65 school board in April, said property taxes from the new development could help the district’s deficit.
“Right now, what do you have there? You have nothing,” he said. “So if nobody decides to develop it, nobody benefits. D65 is running a deficit of over a million dollars and that building would help.”
Mayor Lorraine Morton said she supported the project because apartments give residents flexibility to move in and out.
“I would very much like to see residences built (there),” she said. “We need it. We don’t have enough rental units.”
Kent said he was concerned that NU students would occupy about 30 percent of the building, but Morton said an apartment complex could be useful to people of all ages.
“Some people are afraid NU students will move in,” she said. “And I say ‘good for them.’ We also need apartments for people who get a little age on them and want to sell their house.”
In other action Monday:
• Aldermen voted 7-1 to allow NU officials to close Sheridan Road and other city streets in October for the annual homecoming parade. Ald. Ann Rainey (8th) voted against.
• Council members also voted to loan $67,155 to a local developer to renovate 1817 Foster St. as part of the mayor’s special housing fund for low-income families.
“My plan is to head west into Evanston,” said Louis Gonzales, the developer given the job. “It’s a neighborhood that needs upgrading. I’m hoping to improve the standards of the neighborhood and promote pride of ownership.”
Kent said the house, a two-apartment dwelling, will give one government-subsidized family and one “typical, average, hard-working family” the opportunity to live in an affordable home.
• Aldermen also referred back to committee a six-month trial program for booting cars on private property in downtown Evanston.
