After months of contentious debate, the Evanston City Council rejected a proposal for a four-story, 27-unit residential building Monday night by a 5-4 vote.

The City Council began discussing the affordable condominium building at the intersection of Church Street and Darrow Avenue on March 27 and formed a subcommittee of aldermen and residents to explore the plan in depth. After six sessions, the committee reported at Monday’s meeting that it was unable to come up with a consensus.

The Plan Commission originally rejected the plan, which initially called for a 42-unit building.

Opponents of the project identified four main issues with the proposal: the number of units, whether the condos should be owned or rented, the question of providing adequate parking and the use of a common space on the building’s ground floor.

Fifth Ward resident Carlis Sutton, who opposed the plan, said the developer’s proposal was “not realistic, practical or enforceable” and was “contrary to the vision for the area we call our home.”

“The fundamental problem with this proposal is location,” said Sutton, the president of the Community Alliance Organization.

“(It) is way out of scale with anything in our community.”

Richard Koenig, executive director of the Housing Opportunity Development Corporation, said the developers fully addressed all the neighbors’ concerns and “tried to make this the best building possible.”

“There are still many issues to be discussed, and we will continue to do that,” he said. “This is not the end of the journey. This is just the beginning. We will continue to work with the community. We will continue to iron out all the details.”

All nine aldermen weighed in on the issue during the council’s Planning and Development Committee meeting, which preceded the regular council meeting.

Ald. Edmund Moran (6th) voted in favor of building the condominiums.

He said Evanston is “legendary for being a stepping stone for people who are starting their adult lives and building families” and that “we need to do something.”

“We have this diversity in our housing stock,” Moran said. “It’s not like Lake Forest. You don’t have to have a million bucks in the bank (to buy a house here.)”

Ald. Anjana Hansen (9th), who voted against the proposal, said the developers weren’t able to compromise because of the method of funding they chose.

“I don’t think the statement can be made that financing is not driving this project,” she said. “There are other ways of financing, and they haven’t been explored.”

Ald. Lionel Jean-Baptiste (2nd) slammed his fist on his table and urged others to approve the plan.

“This is about poor people,” he said. “If this was about a rich … development going up here, you would support it.”

After the meeting, Sutton said he “didn’t anticipate this decision going into the meeting” and called Jean-Baptiste’s statement “idiotic” and “repulsive.”

“We are for all black poor people, and we are for people who want to move up the ladder in Evanston,” he said. “But this project does not give an opportunity.”

Moran, who left after the council voted on the proposal, said the refusal went against the principles for development the city has tried to uphold.

“This is really one of the most discouraging nights I’ve had in 15 years,” Moran said.

Reach Laura Olson at [email protected] and Matt Presser at [email protected].