Ignoring major flaws in the plan for the 35 story luxury condominium project at 708 Church, six of the nine Aldermen on the Evanston City Council approved the project. The process that this project went through was flawed from the beginning. Some highlights of the process and results:

• project introduced to Council and City Staff in illegal executive session in 2007
• despite warnings from Evanston's own legal counsel, the project was allowed to proceed independently from a pending downtown plan and was excluded from a moratorium on downtown development
• despite overwhelming input from the community resisting dense condo development downtown, the consultant team hired by the City recommended 42 stories for this one parcel
• the project received a narrow recommendation from Plan Commission that came with conditions for including underground parking and office space. All conditions recommended by Plan Commission were rejected by the developers and ignored by the Council
• the proposal was tabled by Planning and Development when they saw that they didn't have the votes to pass it
• the same six Aldermen who eventually supported the project, rejected the majority Plan Commission recommendation to exclude the property from a "central core" in a deliberate move to get the Tower approved
• the spirit and intent of the zoning ordinance was ignored and allowances amounting to illegal spot-zoning were granted
• the Council granted an un-unprecedented window of five years for the developer to apply for a building permit, thus tying the hands of the next council and assuring that vacant retail in the area will not be filled for the next 5-8 years
• the project was approved without appropriate traffic, wind, or economic impact studies
• the City failed to study or disclose the impact of the building on the infrastructure and city services, leaving the taxpayers of Evanston to foot the bill for ALL improvements needed to support the project

For whatever reason, six of your elected officials succeeded in railroading the project through the process, ignoring the flaws of the project, because they knew that a new Council would evaluate the project on its merits and likely vote it down.

As you walk through the deserted storefronts of downtown over the next five years, please be certain to thank Ald. Wollin, Jean-Baptiste, Holmes, Moran, Rainey and Hansen.