A lot that’s been vacant for 18 years is expected to become the site of the next Evanston Township High School Geometry in Construction house.
Evanston aldermen are scheduled to approve a contract to purchase the lot at 2005 Grey Ave. for the project at their meeting tonight.
The house built during the 2016-17 school year was moved to its site at 1509 Emerson St. last month.
Moving this year’s ETHS-built house.
Property records indicate the house originally built on the 2005 Grey Ave. lot in the 1950s cost the city roughly $13,000 to demolish in 2000 after it had fallen into disrepair.
The lot most recently changed hands less than two years ago for $22,500 and is currently assessed by the county as having a market value of $37,660.
The city has offered to acquire it for $42,500 using money from its affordable housing fund.
The lots used for the four previous Geometry in Construction homes were acquired by the city through its federal Neighborhood Stabilization Program grant, but city staff says no lot from that program is availalbe this year.
Without a site to locate the home the students are scheduled to build, ETHS officials say, the Geometry in Construction class, which has 99 students registered for the coming year, would have to be cancelled.
The houses built through the program are sold to households with incomes no greater than 120 percent of the area median, with a preference for sales to ETHS employees.
Community Partners for Affordable Housing manages the sale of the homes and 99-year renewable ground leases or similar restrictions are used to maintain long-term affordability.