A Wilmette village official says his office will investigate allegations this week made by neighbors of Loyola Academy that the Jesuit high school has repeatedly violated an enrollment cap of 2,000 the village mandated when it allowed Loyola to expand its campus in 1993.
Some neighbors of the school say the alleged violations should convince Wilmette not to approve Loyola’s latest zoning request – which they oppose – for approval to build two parking lots where two small fields and two school-owned houses now stand.
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John Adler, Wilmette’s community development director, said Monday he had contacted the school after researching school enrollment numbers and determining there was enough evidence of cap violations to warrant a discussion with the school.
“We need to hear back from them, to hear what their explanation is,” Adler said.
Loyola was on Easter break last week but school spokeswoman Robin Hunt said in a March 31 email that the village had contacted the school about the enrollment claims.
“We will be discussing this matter with the village next week when we return from break,” she said. On Monday, she said the two sides had not yet spoken.
Wilmette’s Zoning Board of Appeals was set to hear the parking lot requests on Wednesday night
A letter from Christopher Canning, the attorney representing Loyola in the zoning case, accompanies the zoning request and acknowledges the enrollment cap as a condition of the school becoming a coeducational institution.
Loyola, located at 1100 Laramie Ave. in west Wilmette, wants to pave over two grass fields that lie west of Laramie and north of the school, on both sides of Thornwood Avenue. The school’s plan for 138 parking spaces – 16 to the south of Thornwood and 122 north of the street – also requires the removal of two houses lying north of the northernmost field.
Loyola officials said in February the new lots will serve staff and vendors, and won’t increase the number of students at the school or result in more student parking passes.
Some neighbors on Manor Drive, Illinois Road and the short east-west cross streets that dead end next to the school oppose the project, saying the lots will bring more congestion to the area, lower their property values, and potentially cause more flooding by increasing impermeable surfaces.
Ariel Weissberg, who represents North Shore Citizens to Preserve Green Space, Inc., sent a request last week to Adler, asking him to investigate the enrollment claims.
Weissberg’s letter said Loyola’s violation of the 2,000-student cap “from all evidence is undeniable” and asks the village to revoke the 1993 special use permit.
Weissberg’s letter includes his claims that the school’s enrollment has ranged from between 2,094 in 2010-11 and 2,069 in 2015-16. No year in between has seen enrollment been below 2000, according to the letter.
Weissberg also sent a March 30 presentation to Patrick Duffy, who chairs Wilmette’s Zoning Board of Appeals, asking that the ZBA reject Loyola’s current zoning request, based in part on the alleged violations of the enrollment cap.
Weissberg said last week that North Shore Citizens, a not-for-profit group formed by neighbors to fight the parking lot project, “will do whatever it takes to stop the proposed action by Loyola.” That could include legal action against the village if Wilmette does not take “proper action,” he said.
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