Despite the protest of nearby residents and opposition from two aldermen, the Evanston City Council finally has approved a 77-unit condominium project at Main Street and Chicago Avenue.
The project, developed by Steve Mullins and Robert Matthews, sits on the property that once housed Great Bank Evanston and will create a seven-story structure at the intersection.
The development has been postponed several times because council members have wanted to see more accurate designs and modifications.
“This developer has been more willing to listen to constituents than anyone else,” Ald. Melissa Wynne (3rd) said.
Wynne, whose ward holds the property, pushed for the development only after stricter specifications for material substitution and landscaping were included in the proposal.
Although the council voted 6-2 Monday to pass the ordinance, some residents are still concerned about the effect the building could have on surrounding neighborhoods, particularly with added traffic going in and out of the building.
“This area is already very crowded,” said Judy Freeman, an Evanston resident. “The traffic study is flawed and inadequate — it does not address traffic going west of the development.”
Although Freeman and several other residents raised concerns about traffic going west on Main Street at the Planning and Development committee meeting, Mullins assured aldermen that most of the cars would be turning out of the development onto Chicago Avenue.
But Ald. Steven Bernstein (4th), the chairman of the committee, said he voted against the proposal because he is “concerned with the massing of people.”
“I’m still in favor of development,” Bernstein said. “But when we reach the point of saturation, the character of the community will be changed.”
Bernstein was joined by Ald. Joe Kent (5th) in voting against the proposal.
“It’s not always that the bigger, the better,” Kent said. “(Overdevelopment) is a serious problem — it is reaching far past downtown into the neighborhoods, changing the character of the neighborhoods.”
Still some believe that Evanston doesn’t have any choice but to grow and include larger buildings.
“If you believe this project is a disease, any cure that’ll come in the future is going to be far worse,” said David Galloway, an architect with Design Evanston.
