Downtown Evanston from above Fountain Square. Photo: Madcoverboy (talk), CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Evanston has approved its second downtown high-rise in a year. The City Council voted 8-1 Monday night to approve a 26-story apartment tower at 900 Clark St., the downtown corner across Maple Avenue from the Optima Views condominiums.
Ald. Clare Kelly (1st Ward) cast the only no vote, as she did when the project was introduced two weeks earlier. She had said she would not support it because of the property tax break it qualifies for, Evanston Now reported.
The developer, Continuum Development, plans 360 rental units in a building 298 feet tall, one foot shorter than the 605 Davis St. tower the council approved last November. The site’s zoning allows 150 feet by right, so the council also had to approve the extra height, according to the Evanston RoundTable.
Monday’s council agenda carried two items for the site. Ordinance 78-O-26 amends the Church Street Plaza planned development, first approved in 1999 and covering 900 Clark St., 1701-1765 Maple Ave. and 901-921 Church St. in the Research Park zoning district. Resolution 262-R-26 approves a new plat of subdivision for the same land.
Who the units are for
Most of the building is small apartments: 193 studios, 104 one-bedrooms, 54 two-bedrooms and nine three-bedrooms. Seventy-two units, 20% of the total, will be set aside for households earning up to 60% of the area median income and leased through the city’s inclusionary housing program.
Reaching that 20% share makes the building eligible for Cook County’s Affordable Housing Special Assessment Program, which cuts the property tax bill sharply. That break is the one Kelly objected to.
The tower will have nearly 2,500 square feet of ground-floor retail. It won’t have its own garage. Continuum plans to lease 112 spaces for residents in the city-owned garage at 1800 Maple Ave., and the plans include room for 360 bikes on the second floor.
The developer also offered a package of public benefits on top of the affordable units, co-founder Evan Meador told the council in October. Those include crosswalk improvements, $400,000 for the Evanston Thrives program, $137,000 for the city’s transportation fund, $35,000 for the Evanston Mural Arts Program and $25,000 for the Trade Collective, which trains young people for the skilled trades.
Neighbors in Optima Views, the 265-foot condo tower at 1720 Maple Ave., led the opposition through two Land Use Commission hearings and the October council meeting. They raised wind, shadows, traffic and property values. None of them spoke Monday, according to Evanston Now.
Meador said Continuum hopes to start construction in the second quarter of 2027. The build is expected to take about 17 months, with move-ins by late summer 2028.
In other business, the council gave preliminary approval to a daycare for up to 171 children at 831 Chicago Ave., a former livery stable that has sat empty for years. The operator, the U.K.-based N Family Club, may not use the CTA lot at Madison Street and Chicago Avenue for pickups and drop-offs, and will lease 20 Metra-owned spaces near Main Street instead. A final vote is set for Nov. 23, the same night the council is scheduled to take final votes on the 2027 budget.
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Margaret Whitfield is the editor of The Evanston Edge and covers local government, development and neighborhoods.
