Work is scheduled to start this fall on two high-rise developments located just a block apart in downtown Evanston.
Trammell Crow Company’s High Street Residential subsidiary will start construction of its 17-story, 169 unit active senior living residence. at 1727 Oak Ave. next month.
A rendering of the 1727 Oak building.
And Condor Partners, LLC plans to begin construction of its 10-story senior living residential building with 163 units at 1815 Ridge Ave. in November.
The developers met with neighbors and city officials last week to outline plans for coordinating the construction schedule to minimize disruptions to the neighbhorhood just west of the Metra tracks and north of Church Street.
The construction schedules call for the the Ridge Avenue project to be completd by February 2020 and the Oak Avenue development to be finished a month later.
A rendering of the 1815 Ridge building.
Community Development Director Johanna Leonard said after the meeting that the Ridge project has a very tight construction site, with restrictions on how much the tower crane to be used can swing over the adjacent Metra tracks.
She said both projects will require closing adjacent sidewalks and parking lanes, but that the two way traffic will be maintained on the adjoining streets.
A diagram showing site logistics for Phase 2 of construction at 1727 Oak, running from January 2019 to January 2020.
The 1815 Ridge project was approved by the City Council in July 2016, the 1727 Oak building was approved by the City Council in May this year.
Leonard said the city would be closely monitoring both sites, including using vibration monitors to make sure the work doesn’t cause damage to nearby buildings. She said that under city ordinances construction work can’t begin before 7 a.m. and no work can be conducted on Sundays.
Residents with concerns about the work can call 3-1-1 to report any issues.
A diagram showing site logistics for Phase 3 of construction at 1815 Ridge Ave., scheduled for March through December 2019.
The 1727 Oak development is now being branded Avidor-Evanston.
That’s a new brand from the management company Allegro Senior Living, which operates 21 senior living communities, mostly in Florida and Georgia.
The first Avidor-branded property opened recently in Edina, Minnesota, and another is under construction in Glenview.
More Senior Housing = More EMS Calls
So we have these new developments with 332 units. Cook County is also talking about building a new senior housing facility. These are all great. We have a large aging Boomer population. More senior housing and more housing that is senior-compatible is a good thing.
These buildings are a couple of years away, but we need to be realistic. We need to listen to the Fire Department when they say that they are stretched thin. We need to recognize that this much senior housing has the potential to add hundreds of EMS calls a year. That’s just reality. These seniors will be paying taxes but not using our schools…but they do have other needs and expectations of city services.
332 units. What if there are 5 additional EMS calls per week? I don’t think that’s unreasonable. That’s 260 more EMS calls. Can our Fire Department handle that now? Will they be able to if we cut staffing further?
Hi Speech,
Hi Speech,
A 2010 study in North Carolina reported that 38 percent of EMS transports were of persons 65 years of age or older.
The U.S. Census Bureau reports that 13 percent of Evanston’s 75,472 residents, or about 9,811 people, are in that age group.
So we could estimate that of Evanston’s 6,457 EMS runs last year, 2,454 likely were to transport people 65 or older, and the average Evanston resident over age 65 was transported by EMS once every four years.
Thus your assumption that 332 new residents over age 65 would add 260 more EMS runs per year seems quite high. That many people on average being transported once every four years would mean 83 additional runs per year.
Of course there may be differences based on age and underlying health status. People in assisted living units may more heavily use EMS services than people in “active adult” apartments.
And, we don’t know how many of the occupants of the new building will be older people who already live in Evanston moving from homes they’ve sold to young families and how many will be people moving in from nearby towns. Existing residents relocating doesn’t add to the EMS burden.
It’s also worth noting that EMS transports are about the only service the Fire Department provides that generates significant revenue from fees — fees that for older people are covered by Medicare.
— Bill
Excessive EMS demands?
I’m not sure but I suspect most senior resident facilites contract out their EMS transport needs to private firms. If so I would think the added calls to City Fire dept. would be very minimal.
And was it the Fire Chief during budget discussions that claimed a shortage of EMS transport staff or was it the Union representative who made that claim? No disrespect to EMS personnel and the job they do, but one of those two people will always claim understaffed, overworked and underpaid, that is essentially their job.