Nearly 100 years after a congregation of Vincentian priests founded a small college for poor immigrants on the North Side, DePaul University is once again striving to redefine its place within a demanding community.
On Thursday, university officials presented a $100 million, five-year building plan to Lincoln Park residents and neighborhood groups. The resulting debate over the university’s desire to expand its campus and profile illustrates how a university can be perceived as both enhancing–and encroaching upon–an affluent, congested area.
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“As Lincoln Park becomes a more residential campus, the university must build more facilities and dorms to accommodate that,” said Ken McHugh, executive vice president at DePaul. “The new buildings all front on residential areas. In an urban setting, you can’t help that.”
Long considered a commuter school, DePaul never had a quad with green space until the early 1990s. The school’s residential population has doubled since 1987, to nearly 1,800 last year. At the community meeting, the university detailed plans to build more dorms, a student center and several academic buildings in the next few years.
For the university, the plan represents an opportunity to update some of its key programs–especially biology and chemistry–and improve its ability to deliver a rounded liberal arts education to a more diverse student body.
But many of the 60 or so residents who attended Thursday’s meeting view the expansion as a threat to property values and the trendy neighborhood’s character.
“Parking and population density here are already at a saturation point,” said Mark Palmer, who owns a condominium near some of the proposed construction. “Now every parcel the university owns, they’re going to develop to the maximum.”
The most controversial projects are a seven-story mixed-use facility under construction at Sheffield and Fullerton Avenues, and a six-story recreation center planned for Sheffield between Belden and Webster Avenues. Nearby residents fear the sports facility, which may have a running track sticking out from its top floor, will amplify noise from the elevated trains and transform their back alley into a resonance chamber.
“I’ve made peace with the `L’ . . . but I don’t know if I can take the burden of this building,” said Ed Saloman, whose house is on the other side of the tracks from the proposed structure.
University officials say work on the project should begin within 18 to 24 months.
Despite the complaints, many Chicago neighborhoods would love to trade their woes with Lincoln Park. In an area rich in historical buildings, with business booming and property values still soaring, many community activists say the dissenters need more perspective.
In fact, because all of the proposed work falls under the school’s existing zoning allowances, no city law requires DePaul to seek neighborhood approval. In a 1989 agreement, however, the school promised to consult with the community on all construction projects–an arrangement that some local activists feel lucky to have.
“I think they’re sincere in trying to be part of the community,” said Allan Mellis, a permanent member of DePaul’s neighborhood advisory committee who has lived in Lincoln Park for more than 20 years.
One plan that apparently was scrapped after objections from the advisory committee involved a sky bridge that would have connected the recreation center with the new student union across Sheffield.
“The community definitely wouldn’t support that, and I don’t think it’s an issue anymore,” said Tom Kennedy, president of the Lincoln Park Conservation Association.
At the same time, the university has taken advantage of the neighborhood’s economic strength. In a creative financing arrangement, the tower at Sheffield and Fullerton will use prime retail space on lower floors to offset the cost of dorm rooms higher up.
Concerned neighbors say the arrangement shows the university has become preoccupied with its own financial gain, without regard to possible negative effects on the community’s character.
McHugh, who functions as the school’s chief financial officer, said the its Catholic mission prevents it from seeking sheer profit. The school has proved it is a responsible business partner, he said.
The school stayed put during the less-prosperous 1950s, when administrators considered moving it to the suburbs, McHugh said.
“Many people who are currently there moved in recently, paid a lot for their property, and don’t want any changes to bring property values down,” he said.
In cases where the school’s actions could lower property values, McHugh said, he will work with residents to modify building plans or, as a last resort, buy their property.