An 11-story office building proposed for a city parking lot in downtown Evanston will not move forward after the development on Monday did not garner the seven votes it needed from aldermen to break ground.
Aldermen voted 5-4 on the plan, with those in support of the project saying it would bring much needed tax revenue to city coffers and business to downtown shops and restaurants. But that was short of the three-fourths vote the measure required to pass.
The development plan needed to reach that higher threshold after 30 percent of property owners within 500 feet of the lot signed a petition and submitted it to the city, according to a staff report.
“There’s nothing like an 11-story office building going to lunch in our downtown,” said Ald. Ann Rainey, 8th Ward. Nearby restaurant the Celtic Knot “might be busy finally.”
“We‘ve been told over and over that we don’t have enough office space. This is a great mistake to vote this down. I frankly do not understand it,” said Ald. Judy Fiske, 1st Ward.
But those who were against the project said it was too big, would awkwardly stretch into an adjacent alley and did not fit into the character of the block. Some expressed skepticism that the development team before the council on Monday had changed so dramatically since the project originally was submitted.
The developers are “asking for a slice of our alley that we never said was part of the deal. They’re also asking us to cut back on a portion of the library parking lot which wasn’t part of the deal. The building is too big for the site,” said Ald. Melissa Wynne, 3rd Ward.
Ald. Don Wilson, 4th Ward, asked why the development team had changed so significantly since the original proposal was submitted.
“It’s not the same team. It’s not that this team is a bad team, it’s just not the same team. It’s not unreasonable to wonder about these issues,” Wilson said.
At issue was a proposed development designed by Paul Janicki Architects, Inc. for an 11-story office building with 76 parking spaces at 1714-1720 Chicago Avenue. The project would include 130,000 square feet of floor area and cover a 26,750 square-foot site, according to a staff report.
The developer asked the council to change the zoning from general residential to a downtown core development district. In addition to the zoning change, the project would have required a host of variances on the building’s height, required parking spaces and various setbacks, according to a staff report.
The developer also hoped to rent 203 off-site parking spots in city garages for five years, according to the report. As currently proposed, the project would have 76 on-site spaces and two “compact stalls.”
The project would sit on what is now a municipally-owned parking lot surrounded by Evanston Public Library, the Woman’s Club of Evanston, the Frances Willard Museum Campus and the McManus Center, a seven-story Northwestern University dorm, according to the staff report.
The area was designated a local historic district in 2010. Aldermen in October 2017 agreed to sell the lot for $4 million to developer Chicago Avenue Partners LLC.