Evanston residents have filed a petition with the city against Northwestern’s newest dining option and student hangout.

The Great Room, 610 Haven St., is attached to one of the student residences the University acquired from Seabury-Western Theological Seminary earlier this year. The building is in an area of the city designated for residences, defined by the city as a T-1 zoning area, where restaurants are not allowed. Residents said the dining hall constitutes a restaurant, and is therefore not legally permitted in the area.

“There are only certain uses allowed in that T-1 zoning area, and certainly a restaurant is not one of them,” said George Gaines, who filed the petition with his wife Friday.Before renovating the building, NU and Evanston officials met with a committee of neighborhood residents, both city and University representatives said. NU received permission to use the building the same way it had been used before, as a residence hall with an attached dining hall.

“We determined them to be an accessory use,” said Dominick Argumedo, the city’s zoning planner.

Evanston zoning policy states, “a nonconforming use in a complying structure…shall not be expanded, extended, enlarged or increased in intensity.” The basis of the complaint is the new dining hall has “increased in intensity.”

The city’s zoning board of appeals will evaluate the application and decide whether or not the Great Room constitutes a restaurant, which would be illegal in the neighborhood.”It serves way more than just the residents of that dorm,” said Gaines, who lives on the 2200 block of Orrington Avenue. “It serves the general public.”

Gaines said he thinks the University misrepresented the intended use for the building.

“I love having students around, I just don’t think that illegal restaurant licenses should be granted, and the University telling us one thing and proceeding to do another isn’t right,” Gaines said.

Eugene Sunshine, NU’s senior vice president for business and finance, said the University accurately portrayed to the city its plans for the property.

“There was no misrepresentation at all,” Sunshine said. “When we made the acquisition we presented what we were doing with the property. Under the zoning law, the uses that were there when Seabury owned it were legal, as were ours as long as we continued those uses after the acquisition.”

Sunshine said the building is not intended to be a restaurant and a system may be put into place through which Great Room employees make sure patrons are limited to the NU community.

A new sign hangs in the Great Room’s foyer, saying the facility is intended for NU students, faculty, staff, alumni and their guests.

“It is not a restaurant,” Sunshine said. “It is part of our dining services that we provide for students.”

Sunshine said behavioral problems with students, such as noise issues, should be addressed separately from problems with the building itself.

Several students eating in the Great Room on Wednesday said they did not understand why residents would take issue with the building, as they had never seen large crowds there.

“We’re here two or three times a week and we’ve never seen it be that crowded,” said Myrtie Williams, a Weinberg sophomore. “I would never call this a restaurant.”

Veronica Ochoa, also a Weinberg sophomore, said she liked the Great Room for the quality of its food and its comfort.

“It’s one of the only places where you can get hot food after 8:00,” Ochoa said after polishing off an order of mozzarella sticks. “It’s also quieter than Lisa’s or Norris.”[email protected]