The city is continuing to develop a plan for a North Downtown area after a bid failed to develop an apartment building targeting Northwestern students.

City staff, in conjunction with aldermen and input from the public, have been working on a proposal for expanding the downtown area since April. Currently, the downtown area extends roughly from Ridge Avenue east to Hinman Avenue, and from Lake Street north to Emerson Street.

The discussions were started in part after the development bid at 831 Emerson St. that stalled earlier this year, said Ald. Judy Fiske (1st). A developer had proposed to build a student-focused, 14-story building at a site just west of Sherman Avenue that currently houses the 7-Eleven and Lake City Cleaners.

The city has received another proposal for the site, although the other proposed residential building would not be geared toward students, Muenzer said.

Although the original proposal failed early this year, aldermen began discussing what to do with the area at large.

“We need to get organized here,” Fiske said. “This is a really good thing … to look at this particular area.”

The new proposal, presented at a committee on Monday by director of community development Mark Muenzer, would add five subareas in the region north of Emerson Street into the Downtown Evanston plan, which was originally passed in 2009.

Monday’s proposal outlined two of the subareas would encourage transit-oriented development, while an additional two would be transitional areas between the more-developed downtown to the residential areas to the north. A fifth would call for more traditional development that would match more closely in size and style with the pre-existing buildings.

The buildings on the north side of Foster Street would likely be less dense in the new plan, Muenzer said.

“Properties fronting Emerson probably made a little more sense to have a little more density,” he said.

Engelhart Hall, an apartment complex for Northwestern graduate students, is a key component of the area, city manager Wally Bobkiewicz said.

“The Engelhart piece is a big deal because that building’s getting a little older, graduate students … their living patterns are changing, more and more are finding places themselves,” he said.

The parking lot next to Engelhart Hall is also important, Bobkiewicz said. Northwestern had previously proposed to turn the lot into a large parking garage but opted instead to put two on campus.

City staff will likely bring a completed proposal to the Plan Commission at the end of this year, Muenzer said at Monday’s meeting.

Fiske said this was an opportunity to plan for the future of the city.

“Our downtown is really landlocked,” Fiske said. “We really should take time to figure out what we want Evanston to be 25 to 30 years from now.”

Julia Jacobs contributed reporting.

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