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player ready...A religious order will be allowed to move forward with a senior housing development after Evergreen Park officials voted this week to settle a lawsuit that blocked the plans.
The Sisters of Mercy of the Americas’ Regional Community of Chicago agreed to scale back the senior housing facility from 211 to 110 units and to restrict the development to clergy, not clergy and laypeople as originally planned.
The plans also call for cutting the assisted living building from four stories to three. Village approval would be required to make any major changes to the plan for 10024 S. Central Park Ave.
“It’s a big step forward,” said Sister Judith Frikker, president of the Sisters of Mercy West Midwest Community after the Evergreen Park Village Board unanimously voted Monday to approve the settlement. “We’ve been planning this facility to be able to serve our sisters for many years.”
Though the housing is in Chicago’s Mount Greenwood neighborhood, village officials contended that when Evergreen Park de-annexed the property in 1954, the religious order agreed to use it for education only.
Residents and some trustees had complained the facility and construction would create traffic, noise and possible environmental problems for nearby schools.
“There’s just no educational benefit to having this type of facility so close to a grammar school,” said Kathy Rohan, school board president for Evergreen Park School District 124.
Trustee Jerry Bosch said the revised plans were more palatable, and “it was time to move on.” He also said village officials had wanted to limit the facility to clergy so the inhabitants wouldn’t be a “source of concern.”
Some residents thought the facility should be open to laypeople as well.
“There’s all kinds of people who have already raised their kids and are getting older, and if they want to move to some type of retirement home, they’ll have to move far away,” said Bill Brett, an Evergreen Park resident who lives near the site.
Sister Sheila Megley, who is coordinating the project, said she had hoped the development would serve the entire community but was happy the facility finally would be built.
“I’m just kind of moving forward,” Megley said. “In a settlement, everybody gives something.”