Evanston Land Use Commission approves Church Street development in part

In the latest update to a proposed land-swap project in which St. Pisgah Ministry would give up its property so an affordable housing project could be built there, and receive city land in exchange, Evanston’s Land Use Commission voted against recommending approval to City Council for the rebuild of St. Pisgah while voting in favor of recommendation for the affordable housing complex.

The board voted 4-3 in approval of the housing development with Commissioner George Halik abstaining during its Feb. 22 meeting. The vote ended at 5-3 against the church rebuild with commissioners saying they like the project but have concerns about parking, traffic and how the design would fit in the available space.

The next step is for the project to go before City Council. If that body were to vote against the housing complex, Mt. Pisgah Pastor Clifford Wilson said the church could not move forward with its rebuild and relocation.

“What we want is to try to increase our size so that we can accomplish more with the ministry. In order to do that, we don’t have the funds. We need people,” Wilson said. “The building that we’re proposing to build is gonna be a 200-seat facility. With 200 people, that building is really not that large based upon the size of churches in the city of Evanston already. As a matter of fact, we would still be very small.”

Because the two projects are inextricably linked, plans would have to go back to the drawing board if the church rebuild is not approved by City Council, according to Richard Koenig, executive director of Housing Opportunity Development Corporation, who would build and manage the affordable housing property.

“The plan all along has been to work with Mt. Pisgah Ministry and so we would need to sit down and talk with the church and figure out what would be possible,” Koenig said.

The project originally planned for a 44-unit affordable housing complex to be built in part on Mt. Pisgah’s current site on the 1800 block of Church Street with the church moving to the city-owned lot on the corner of Church Street and Darrow Avenue.

5th Ward residents came out in opposition of the project saying that continuing to add affordable housing projects to the ward instead of adding them in other areas of the city could constitute modernized redlining.

Tina Paden of property management company Paden Properties spoke out in opposition of the project saying it is inappropriate and there are too many affordable units in the city’s 5th Ward.

Resident Roberta Hudson said area residents want the chance to own their homes instead of renting and too much emphasis is put on affordable housing instead of projects to benefit area youth.

“I think there are a lot of housing needs and this can only address one of them. It’s hard sometimes to comprehensively look at what all the needs are and address them,” Koenig said. “This is just one potential solution for a variety of housing issues. We agree there should be homeownership and there should be more rental housing … we need all of that.”

Sarah Flax, the city’s interim housing and grants manager, said the reason so many affordable housing units are built in the 5th Ward is due in part to the lack of large available lots in other wards. To combat this, the city is looking to flip underused municipal parking lots such as one on South Boulevard to be used for affordable housing complexes.

“The City of Evanston has had a reckoning in recent years. We’ve invested in the 5th Ward. Please don’t back out of it now,” Darrow Street resident Anna Wooden said. “I’m asking you to give us and the 5th Ward the same consideration you give any block in Evanston.”

Keith Banks, executive director of local affordable housing developer Reba Place Development Corporation, said with the city being landlocked, Evanston needs to place affordable housing wherever it can to meet the need for 7,000 units.

“When we have opportunities to convert vacant lots, we need to do it. This lot has been vacant for over 35 years,” he said. “Now it’s an opportunity to convert that lot into affordable housing and to allow a church to expand.”

Flax said with the city’s inclusionary housing ordinance it has been able to get most developers to dedicate 10% of affordable units on sites with those almost exclusively being in the downtown area. One of those developers is Horizon Realty Group, which is looking to build a 15-story high-rise with 10 affordable housing units.

City Council ranked affordable housing as the top issue it looks to tackle in 2023 during goal setting meetings held earlier this year. To do so, Council said it wants to revisit Evanston’s Inclusionary Housing Ordinance, increase its affordable housing stock, fully fund a housing inspection program and provide funding to enforce the city’s fair housing ordinance.