Evanston council members ask developer of proposed 31 story tower to scale it down

The Evanston City Council voted recently to extend the timeline to a developer’s controversial plans to build a 31-story, 430-unit apartment building in downtown Evanston.

After some back-and-forth, when it became evident the plan did not have enough support from Council members to pass a vote, Council members voted to table the motion to their Oct. 27 meeting in hopes the developers will come back with a reduction in the number of floors and units, as well as height.

As currently proposed, the 331-foot building at 605 Davis Street would be the tallest residential building in Chicago’s suburbs, and the third tallest building overall, beaten only by two office buildings in Itasca and Oakbrook Terrace.

Fourth Ward City Councilmember Jonathan Nieuwsma, a key supporter of making Evanston more dense, said while he appreciated the proposal, it was too big and too dense.

“I like the increase in housing supply, period. I like the additional affordable units, even if they are not forever,” Niuewsma said. “It’s more of what we need downtown.”

“I’m in favor of more urban… but at some point, more becomes too much… this building is just more than I can accept.”

City Councilmember Matt Rodgers (8th) made a motion to send the project back to the Land Use Commission, but later withdrew it after the Council discussed with staff the possibility of the developers being able to make changes to the development before it heads back to the City Council.

David Reifman, an attorney representing the project, asked the council to give the developers more concrete recommendations for changes they could make to earn Council support.  Rodgers said he was more comfortable with a building between 20 to 24 floors, and Nieuwsma said he would like a building that was “20-something” stories high.

Perhaps coincidently, before Rodgers shared his opinion on the height, Nieuwsma said, “I’m afraid, if I said nothing more than 24 stories — to pick a number — the developer would be incentivized to make the building less aesthetically pleasing to try and fit the same number of units in a shorter building.”

Twenty percent of the building’s units, or 86 apartments, will be rented at affordable rates to low and moderate income earners for 30 years, higher than the city’s mandated 15% for similarly sized developments under its Inclusionary Housing Ordinance. In return, the developers are entitled to a substantial property tax break offered by the state of Illinois to incentivize new construction of affordable homes in Cook County.

First Ward City Councilmember Clare Kelly said she would vote in favor of the development if the developers opt out of the program and forego the tax incentives. She also noted, however, that the proposal was too high and dense and had many other issues, which she said needed to be sorted out by the Land Use Commission.

After the vote, Reifman and Campbell Coyle President Chris Dillon answered questions from reporters as they exited City Hall.

“We’re engaging with a number of elected officials,” Reifman said. “We’re having dialog with several of them, and we’re going to look at all the options.”

“We don’t know yet what our path is right now, so we’ll see in a few weeks,” Reifman said.

In a phone call with Pioneer Press, Nieuwsma said he didn’t have an exact idea for how many floors he had in mind for the building. “I asked the developer to come back with a scaled down version… I look forward to approving a scaled down version when this comes back to us in October,” he said.

Before the City Council voted to postpone the development, the city’s Planning and Development Committee voted 3-3 to give the development a neutral recommendation to the City Council. City Councilmembers Parielle Davis, Rodgers and Kelly voted in the negative and City Councilmembers Shawn Iles, Bobby Burns and Juan Geracaris voted in the affirmative.

Neighbors of the development, mostly at 1600-1620 Sherman Ave., successfully slowed the proposal’s progress through the city’s commissions after arguing the proposal would be too dense, create too much traffic and not create enough parking after the developers requested a substantial cut in providing on-site parking spots because the development is within a half-mile of  public transit including CTA/Pace buses, Metra and the CTA Purple Line.

The Land Use Commission would later reject the developer’s proposal on a tight 3-4 vote.

The proposal did change from the developer’s initial application to the city in January. The original plan called for the building to be two feet taller and have 447 units, but developers later reduced that number to 430 to accommodate more two and three-bedroom units.