After a nearly six-hour hearing that stretched into the early morning hours Wednesday, Wilmette trustees approved the first phase of Loyola Academy’s expansion plan, including a new swimming pool, more parking, and different traffic patterns aimed at taking school traffic out of the adjoining neighborhood.
They also approved an increase in the Jesuit high school’s enrollment cap, from the 2,000-student limit imposed in 1993 and repeatedly broken by the school. School officials admitted the enrollment violations in a May 2016 letter to the village.
Approval came with conditions, some of which had been negotiated between the village and Loyola since September, and some which came despite Loyola’s opposition.
The school agreed to drop plans to turn two of its small green fields into parking, at least for the first two phases of its “Loyola Forward 2025” expansion plan. The school’s February 2016 plan to turn them into staff and visitor parking lots sparked a fight with the neighborhood. After the fight led to the discovery of Loyola’s enrollment violations, the school scrapped those plans and embarked on the more ambitious expansion effort.
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Loyola also dropped its September request for a 10 percent enrollment buffer that would have allowed student numbers to rise to 2,200 before triggering a zoning violation. It agreed to a hard cap of 2,125, and to report enrollment annually to the village.
Some neighbors have argued that traffic problems resulted from the school’s enrollment cap violations; many have also said the board should sanction Loyola in some fashion for its years of cap violations.
The board accepted the increase after mandating a “look-back” that requires a traffic study after the first phase of Loyola work is done. The study, to be paid for by Loyola but overseen by the village, would try to determine if Loyola’s traffic circulation changes improved the traffic clogging Laramie Avenue and neighboring cross streets at drop-off and pick-up times, or if continuing traffic problems in the area could be tied to the changes.
Loyola had suggested six and 12-month look-back provisions, but some trustees wanted longer periods. Trustees eventually agreed to leave look-back decisions to village staff and the traffic consultant. They also agreed that Loyola would not be held accountable for traffic problems that couldn’t be directly traced to the school, such as traffic tied to New Trier High School’s Northfield campus, north of Loyola.
The board agreed with Loyola speakers, including school President Patrick McGrath and lawyer Hal Franke, that forcing the school to cut back enrollment in the middle of an academic year couldn’t be done.
It included as a condition, a period of one school year for Loyola to “cure” enrollment above 2,125. If the school was above that number by October of the following year, it could be subject to daily fines. Franke objected to the fines, which could be between $50 and $750, according to village attorney Jeff Stein. Stein said the village might not impose fines but needed the ability to do so.
Wilmette won’t consider fines or lower enrollment limits until enrollment remedies have been tried, trustees decided. Nor would fines or limits be considered for traffic problems tied to Loyola until Loyola was given the chance to fix those problems, they decided.
During Loyola’s roughly two-hour presentation, McGrath said, “I apologize if there’s been an appearance of some sort of nefarious plot to grow until there’s no more room … That’s not the case.”
Later, he apologized again, saying, “We should have had some mechanism for engaging with the village” about annual enrollments.
Eight people spoke after Loyola’s presentation. Jim Brault and Peter Broccolo, both Wilmette residents who are Loyola alumni and on boards and committees at the school, supported the requests.
“At the end of the day, are we better off with the plan, or without?” Brault asked, arguing that the traffic changes will help the neighborhood, and thanking neighbors for working with Loyola.
Four neighbors objected to the enrollment increase.
“Loyola’s violated this cap for many years, and the penalty for violating this should not be to increase the cap,” North Branch Trail resident Arne Rosen said. “Don’t reward them for their bad behavior.”
Riverside Drive resident Joshua Wechsler worried enrollment changes couldn’t be reversed, and said, “This is a momentous day for this board … this day is history, just like it was in 1993 when that (first) cap was set.”
However, Richard Kahan, a former head of the citizens’ group North Shore Citizens to Preserve Green Space and also a Riverside Drive resident, said he supported the proposal because Loyola had improved its communications with area residents.
Only Trustee Joel Kurzman voted against approval, saying he supported keeping the 2,000-student limit and that the plan could impact the safety of students biking to neighboring elementary schools. Trustee Julie Wolf was not present.
Twitter: @pioneer_kathy