By Jared Goldberg-Leopold
As two-year-old John Claussen jumps up and down and sings along to Raffi, his mother, Suzanne, tells me that the quietness of southwest Evanston made her want to raise a family there.
“We were surrounded by congestion (in our previous home),” she says. “That was one of the reasons we moved here.”
But Claussen, 28, is worried that a possible 335-unit development could lead to overcrowding in the neighborhood and local elementary school system.
Bristol Chicago Development, LLC, last week told the city about its proposal to build the residential complex on the border of this 200 household community, where the Claussens live.
Bristol wants to buy 9.4 acres of land at 222 Hartrey Ave., and turn it into condominiums and townhouses. The use of the land will be determined by CenterPoint Properties Trust, a real estate company that purchased the land from Shure Inc. last year.
I went to southwest Evanston to cover the story, Monday night, the first time I’ve been down there since buying software at Best Buy during New Student Week 2001. And, in this corner of Evanston — rarely visited by NU students — I found a quiet, small neighborhood in danger of losing its character.
Although the proposal is only in its infancy — many other companies have made bids for the land — neighbors are rightfully concerned about Bristol’s plans.
Members of the community, old and young, treasure its diversity and family-friendliness. It reminded me a bit of my hometown, a suburb outside of Philadelphia, filled with a mixture of families and elderly people. The kind of neighborhood where you know your neighbors and watch their kids grow up.
Whenever her neighbor’s grown children come to visit their mother, Sybel Vega reminds them of when they were riding up and down the block as little children.
“Everytime they come around, I say, ‘seems like yesterday you were on the tricycle,’ ” said Vega, 56, who has raised her children, including a McCormick graduate, on the 2100 block of Brummel Street. But she might move if the development comes in.
“We have been in this house for 23 years and it is a quiet one,” Vega said. “That will make the neighborhood very crowded.
“Nothing happens here,” she said. “But that doesn’t mean they can dump on our lives.”
Fortunately, the neighborhood has a strong advocate in Ald. Ann Rainey (8th); however, no one in city government can address the issue until the property is sold.
“I do the very best I can from early morning to late at night,” Rainey said. “There’s no project, there’s no change in ownership. There’s nothing for the city of Evanston to do.”
Rainey said there were plenty of possibilities for what might happen to the land, ranging from car lots to nursing homes to churches.
“There’s a million different uses that could be put on that property,” Rainey said. “Everything in the world has been done to attract users other than residential.”
But, Rainey said, the city could get in legal trouble by interceding before the property is sold.
“I will go into action the minute there’s an opportunity,” she said.
For now the onus falls on Bristol and CenterPoint. Naturally, these companies have to pay attention to the profit margins, but they also need to keep the community in mind.
CenterPoint and Bristol must make a serious effort to cut down on the congestion foisted upon a small community.
Certainly, some of the property could become real estate. And, frankly, that might be the best financial use of the land.
But 335 units is simply too much.
