Quaint Illinois town in a quandary over proposed skyscraper
Some see a downtown high-rise as a modern way to boost revenue and the next evolutionary step for Evanston. Others say they moved here to avoid such big-city blight.
EVANSTON, ILL. — In this upscale city just north of Chicago, a plan to build a skyscraper -- one nearly as tall as the Washington Monument -- has fueled more than a simple debate over urban planning.
To many residents, the idea is outright heresy.
For more than a year, community members and city officials in this eclectic university town have been embroiled in a fierce dispute over whether to ease zoning restrictions and greenlight the construction of a 49-story retail and luxury condominium complex in the heart of the tree-lined, low-slungdowntown just a few blocks off Lake Michigan.
High-rise tower: An article in Sunday's Section A on a community debate in Evanston, Ill., over whether to build a skyscraper described the city as being landlocked. Although the city's ability to expand its borders is limited by neighboring towns, Evanston is not landlocked. It sits on the western shore of Lake Michigan.
If built, the slender rectangle of steel and glass would be nearly twice the height of the town's next-tallest building.
Some see a tower rising from the city center as the next evolutionary step for this old-line suburb of 75,000. The plan comes at a time when there's intense pressure for the city to generate more revenue to fund the growing demand for local services while easing the bite of rising property taxes.
Project advocates say financial boosts in recent years have come from new lofts and condominiums, which have helped revitalize this landlocked community. All the while, a growing number of national retail outlets have drawn city dwellers to the town's quaint shops and expansive movie entertainment center.
"Evanston is already a microcosm of a major downtown," said James Klutznick, one of the developers proposing the skyscraper project. "It has an urban center." The high-rise, Klutznick said, would serve as an elegant icon and allow growth in a place where there's little room to expand -- except upward.
To critics, the skyscraper plan represents all the woes of big-city life -- including a possible increase in traffic congestion and the specter of small local businesses being driven out by high-end retail chains -- the very things residents say they moved to Evanston to avoid.
"We could become known for a skyscraper, like a mini Chicago," said resident Coleen Burrus, a former fellow at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and a member of the city's Planning Commission.
"It would be like someone building a skyscraper in the middle of Marin, [Calif.], instead of San Francisco. People are as outraged here as they would be there."
Many residents side with Burrus.
