The proposed plans for the teardown and development of residences at the site of the former Kendall College, 2408 Orrington Ave., were approved Tuesday night at a special meeting of Evanston’s Planning and Development Committee.
Smithfield Properties, owners of the block of property between Lincoln and Colfax streets and Sherman and Orrington avenues, presented a modified version of a development plan that has undergone significant changes and downsizing over an almost three-year period.
The new plan, which includes 16 single-family homes and four duplex units, requires dual zoning of the block as R1 and R3 to accommodate the duplexes.
Smithfield met with neighbors to discuss changes to the original proposal, including the design, size and number of homes, said Smithfield Principal Robert Buono.The whole project could take up to six years to complete, Buono said.
Tom Gemmell, originally a strong critic of Smithfield’s first proposed development, presented a petition, signed by himself and other neighbors whose properties directly face the development site, that offers support and approval of the most recently proposed plan.
The original plan – which consisted of 117 townhouses – was too dense, he said, but the modified plan no longer presented a density problem.
This mixed zoning was a point of concern among some opponents in attendance at the meeting.
Allowing R3 zoning on the block would decrease the value of the surrounding properties in the neighborhood, William McClure said.
McClure, along with other residents, supported an all-R1 zoning of the block that would include two single-family homes in place of the proposed duplexes.
The duplexes decrease the value of the other homes, resident Edward Hughes said. “With all single-family homes, everyone benefits,” Hughes said. Aldermen voted 6-2 to approve the change in zoning for the block and 7-1 to approve the proposed planned development.
The proposed plans will go before the City Council and due to the number of signatures on an opposition petition, seven of the nine aldermen, instead of a simple majority, will have to vote in favor of the project for it to be approved.
Reach Anna Prior at [email protected].
