Evanston committee forwards Kensington daycare proposal to council after split public comment on traffic and scale

The Evanston Planning and Development Committee on March 23 voted to forward ordinance 13026 — a special-use and planned-development application to allow a 20,000-square-foot Kensington child daycare at 3434 Central Street — to the full City Council with a neutral recommendation after sustained public comment.

Opponents focused on traffic and scale. “Many parents, as they were picking up, parked on Kensington Avenue. They didn’t pull into the lot. They parked on Kensington on both sides, ran in, picked up their child, and left,” said Craig Mccclure, a nearby resident, describing what he said he observed at a comparable Kensington site. Several speakers, including Larry Raffle and George Stevenson, said the Gross Point Road/Central Street intersection already functions as a confusing, merged cluster of approaches and that Illinois Department of Transportation denied the applicant’s request for a full-access driveway. George Stevenson added that “there were 14 to 16 accidents reported last year,” and warned that a new daily line of drop-off traffic could increase crash risk.

Supporters, including Unity on the Northshore leaders and neighbors, emphasized the congregation’s urgency to sell and said Kensington has revised plans and communicated with the neighborhood. Dr. David Baker, president of Unity on the Northshore’s board, said the church’s sanctuary has suffered HVAC failures and leaks, and that “the building is literally falling apart,” arguing the sale would allow the congregation to move and preserve the site’s legacy. Several neighbors who said they initially opposed the project — including Lane Howard and Amy Miner — said Kensington staff had been responsive and that they were more comfortable after seeing revised traffic plans and design details.

Opposition also raised planning and market concerns. George Stevenson and others argued the proposed center (described in the application at about 19,000–20,000 square feet on a roughly 58,000-square-foot lot) exceeds the scale of comparable suburban centers and could draw staff and families away from smaller local providers, destabilizing the existing childcare ecosystem. An online commenter who did not state a name on the record alleged procedural irregularities, saying the applicant lacked title to the property and warning of potential legal challenges from co-op shareholders; the commenter said written comments submitted earlier in the day include additional details.

The ordinance as moved to council (read into the record as: “ordinance 13026, granting a special use permit for a planned development and special use permit for a child daycare center at 3434 Central Street in the R2 single-family residential district with a neutral recommendation to city council”) passed the committee’s roll call vote and will now be considered by the full City Council. Committee members recorded their votes during the roll call; the motion carried and the item will appear on the Council agenda.

What’s next: the City Council will take final action on ordinance 13026; committee members suggested a neutral committee recommendation would allow fuller debate at council. Written public comments submitted to the City Clerk were referenced during the hearing and will be part of the record for council consideration.