The Evanston North Shore YWCA is seeking city approval to turn a former single family home at 1730 Ridge Ave. into office space for its growing staff.
The YWCA recently acquired the property at 1730 Ridge as well as a home at 1726 Ridge that adjoined the YWCA’s existing headquarters on the northwest corner of Ridge Avenue and Church Street, which it has occupied since 1969.
In an application to the city’s Design and Project Review Committee for approval of the special use application, YWCA officials say they hope, within two or three years to be able to fund an expansion of their existing headquarters, and they’ve demolished the home at 1726 Ridge in preparation for that.
But they also say they have an immediate need for additional office space to house the organization’s expanding staff, and want to use the 1730 Ridge building to provide offices for 10 to 12 employees.
The DAPR Committee is scheduled to review the proposal at a meeting at 2:30 p.m. today and make a recommendation to the Zoning Board of Appeals.
Update 5/3/18: The Design and Project Review Committee recommended approval of the plans to the ZBA on a 9-0 vote, with the condition that the 1730 Ridge Ave. driveway not be used for regular parking.
Cool
Glad to see this as I’m a fan of the YWCA.
“YWCA officials say they hope, within two or three years to be able to fund an expansion of their existing headquarters,”
I hope they already secured some funds as they dedicated over $1.3M to buy the two properties. I was wondering what they were going to do with 1726 Ridge after they likely overpaid in Oct 2016 by paying $700k for a home that was in horrific condition. But I guess if you want that specific property, the owner can basically name their price (and the lot is large at around 11,000 sq ft). They paid a more reasonable $615k for 1730 Ridge that does not appear to be a complete tear-down (although the lot is smaller at 6,650 sq ft). Still probably more than market value based on its odd location that would be a hard sell to any normal family looking to occupy the space. I’m sure the owners were happy to oblige with the sale to the Y.
Regardless, you do what you gotta do to be able to acquire more land if there’s the need and desire! Will be interesting to see.