The Evanston Planning and Development Committee Monday allowed two proposed residential developments to move closer to Evanston City Council approval.
The committee also turned down a proposal to name Kendall College’s former administration building a historic landmark.
The committee voted in favor of both a 49-unit condominium building at 1228 Emerson St. and a 92-unit addition to Three Crowns Park, a retirement home at 2320 Pioneer Road.
The City Council will vote tonight on whether to approve these projects.
Developers of both projects will provide public benefits as a condition of approval. Three Crowns Park will be required to keep the green space on its property as open land, unless the council gives it permission to build on it.
The developer of the Emerson Street property, Ferris Homes, will make a $25,000 donation to a low-income-housing fund.
Ald. Lionel Jean-Baptiste (2nd), whose ward would house the development, said Ferris Homes and neighbors of the proposed development were close to reaching an agreement by which Ferris would “abate the impact of development to neighbors.”
“There’s still some final negotiations going on with two of the neighbors,” Jean-Baptiste said. “I expect by tomorrow we’ll be able to have some final language.”
The agreement would include landscaping, paving alleys and burying utility lines next to the site, Jean-Baptiste said.
The building’s site is next to single-family homes, and residents complained that the five-story project, as originally planned, would abut their backyards. During the approval process, the developer scaled down the project.
Aldermen rejected the landmark-status nomination for Wesley Hall, 2408 Orrington Ave., four months after the city’s Preservation Commission recommended the designation.
Smithfield Properties, the building’s owner, would still need city approval to demolish the building since it is in the Northeast Evanston Historic District.
The committee also voted to adopt the 2003 edition of the International Building Code. But aldermen had some reservations about a provision of the code that would require all condominium conversions of at least three units to have fire sprinklers installed.
Reach Greg Hafkin at [email protected].
