Some west Wilmette residents whose small neighborhood abuts Loyola Academy say they oppose the Jesuit high school’s plan to pave over two grassy lots it now uses as practice fields to make two new parking lots for faculty members, citing concerns about increased traffic and possible flooding.
The lots, which lie on the northwest and southwest corners of the Laramie-Thornwood Avenues intersection, are owned by the school, located at 1100 Laramie Ave. Loyola hopes to complete the project by mid-August, in time for the 2016-2017 school year.
Despite assertions from Loyola officials that the parking lots won’t lead to an increase in the number of students granted parking passes, neighbors along Thornwood Avenue and Manor Drive, immediately to the west of the fields, worry that the lots will bring more cars to the school and worsen the already-heavy morning and afternoon school rush hours.
Neighbors said congestion along Laramie Avenue and Illinois Road, to the immediate north and west of the high school, already makes it hard for residents of nearby streets to get in and out of their driveways, and dangerous for children trying to get to nearby Avoca West elementary school.
They also worried that paving over two parking lots’ worth of grass will add to west Wilmette’s existing flood control issues.
“We’re going to have such backups along Laramie, along Illinois, and along Thornwood,” Thornwood Avenue resident Margarita Garcia said. “And it would take up all that green space with impervious construction so that drainage will be a problem.”
Anne Nagle, whose home is on Manor Drive, agreed: “There’s always water on that field after rain. We have flood issues. What will this do?”
Robin Hunt, Loyola’s director of public relations, said in a Feb. 4 email that the parking lots would be used by high school staff and teachers, not students. She also said Loyola will not be increasing enrollment or the number of student parking passes.
In her email, Hunt said the school’s faculty has grown over the last 10 years, increasing demand for parking spaces in the existing parking lot fronting Laramie Avenue south and west of the school, which is also used by parents, school vendors and school volunteers.
Hunt said Loyola now has 604 regular parking spots, plus 23 parking spots designated as handicapped or visitor parking. She said the school needs 126 more spaces, which includes 24 existing parking spaces that will be lost when the school replaces its aging pool. She did not say when that project is expected to start.
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Thornwood Avenue resident Dory Hixon said traffic congestion is already complicated by the fact that New Trier Township High School’s freshman campus lies just over half a mile north of Loyola, with many New Trier families taking their students to the campus via Illinois Road.
“It’s not just Loyola, it’s New Trier as well, and any increase in cars will really hurt the neighborhood,” Hixon said.
She also said neighbors worry that the school will eventually put lights in the planned parking lots, which are currently used as occasional unofficial parking space during Loyola’s special events and evening football games.
Thornwood resident Ruth Swibel, whose daughter attends Avoca West, said she regularly takes down the license plate numbers of cars, driven by both students and adults, who drive too fast down the street.
“My five-year-old daughter was almost run down while she was riding her bicycle one day,” Swibel said. “My concerns are safety and property values.”
A Feb. 1 letter to area residents described plans for the project and invited them to a 7:30 p.m. meeting on Feb. 10 at the school to learn more from school officials and project engineers.
The school, whose properties are residentially zoned, must go before Wilmette’s zoning board of appeals to request a special use permit in order to create the parking lots, according to John Adler, Wilmette’s community development director.
When asked about village requirements on impermeable surfaces, Adler said “they will definitely need to address that” when Loyola representatives appear before the zoning board. The zoning board will make a recommendation to the village board, which must make the final decision to approve or reject Loyola’s request.
Adler said Feb. 3 that school officials had not yet put in an official zoning request with the village. Loyola’s Feb. 1 letter stated that if the school files its application on or before Feb. 15, the zoning board would hear the case at on March 16 at 7:30 p.m.
Twitter: @pioneer_kathy