Neighborhood Meeting with City Staff
Mather Lifeways Project, Phase 1 and 2
September 28, 2009
7:00 p.m.
Evanston Public Library

City Representatives present: Alderman Judy Fiske and City Staff: Walter Hallen, Jill Chambers, Paul D’Agostino, Dennis Marino, Paul Schneider.

Jill Chambers started by reviewing the current Construction Management Plan

that exists for the project. Summary of review with comments:

• Mather has indicated that they would like to begin demolition of the Georgian (phase 2) in December. However, they have not filed their plans with the City and no permit has been issued yet. However, city staff confirmed that Mather permits will be reviewed on an “expedited basis”; staff anticipates the time between filing and approval (start of demolition) to be two weeks.

• Working hours for demolition and construction remain M-F 7am-6pm and Saturday 8am-5pm with no work on Sunday. If neighbors see work beginning earlier, they should call the police (866-5000) to register a complaint and then make certain to report the violation to Jill Chambers at the City. The City can enforce stop work orders based on violations.

• Neighborhood parking: workers are required to park on-site or in one of the city-owned parking garages. The use of parking enforcement vehicles during the last month of phase 1 was viewed as a good start. It was suggested that the City post temporary signage in neighboring areas that do not have permit parking (e.g. Judson North of Church, Church East of Judson, etc.). It was expressed that there should be more pro-active work in this area at the job site (perhaps having a list of license numbers of workers, requiring workers to show parking stub from garage, etc).

• Primary access to the site for workers continues to be either 1) Clark to Chicago, South on Chicago to Grove, East on Grove to Hinman, North on Hinman to site –or- 2) North on Chicago to Grove, East on Grove to Hinman, North on Hinman to Site. Traffic exiting the site should go West on Davis to Chicago. It was strongly suggested that the entry street to Hinman be changed to Lake or some other street South of the worksite. Also, there were many violations of trucks exiting the worksite and using Grove as the exit route.

• Discussion of demolition and monitoring of vibrations during demolition and construction. Staff will clarify which building to be monitored and how they are selected.

• Water is to be used to clean vehicles before leaving site and during demolition process to minimize dust. Streets are to be cleaned on a daily basis.

• Sidewalk on East side of Hinman in 1500 block to be closed as well as South sidewalk in 400 block of Davis. Construction fencing to surround entire worksite.
• There will be NO staging or construction in the garden behind the Georgian. A structure straddling above the South entry of the alley on Davis will be created to support a trailer and other equipment. Staging will be done on the North portion of the phase 2 site.

• Communication: Mather is to communicate monthly with neighbors within 1,000’ via newsletter or website. It was suggested that Mather be timelier with their communication as the website was not updated on a consistent basis and the people who lived in the rental buildings often didn’t receive any newsletter communication.

• Arrival/Idling of construction vehicles: much discussion on the time that trucks began to arrive on site (usually around 5:30am) and the noise associated with this. The City has an anti-idling ordinance and police should be called if trucks are idling more than 5 minutes each 60 minute period. Additionally, this should be reported to Jill Chambers. As described in the Construction Management Plan, trucks should be arriving on a “just-in-time” basis and should not be lining up on neighborhood streets more than necessary.

The issue of tree damage/replacement was addressed by Paul D’Agostino. It was suggested that Mather do more to protect the parkway trees and that they be forced to replace mature trees with more substantial trees than they are currently doing. Paul D’Agostino will work on this.

The issue of the alley in the 1600 block of Hinman between Church and Judson was briefly addressed. The following issues were raised:

• Delivery vehicles are often backing in off of Church (one-way). This includes deliveries to Quince as well as city service vehicles. Backing in off a one-way street is dangerous (particularly on Church where there are is a lot of pedestrian and vehicular traffic) and the trucks are damaging curbs and running over the parkways causing deep ruts that become small lakes. The practice of backing in off of Church should be eliminated.

• It was suggested that all delivery vehicles for Mather come in and exit from Judson (since their loading docks face Judson). It was also suggested that there be specific delivery times for the alley (Quince and Mather) since early morning deliveries often block the alley and make additional noise for those living on the alley.

• Trucks making deliveries to Mather should park IN the loading docks and not block the alley. If there is more than one delivery, the additional trucks should park on Judson until a delivery bay is open.

• Moving Vans: Mather needs to come up with a policy on move-ins. If the alley is to be used, the trucks should be required to be appropriately sized to fit in the loading dock and not block the alley. No trucks should be allowed block the alley.

• The original ordinance for Mather had a right-turn in, right-turn out provision for their underground parking off of Hinman. This should be enforced. Also, there should never be delivery trucks blocking the sidewalk on Hinman in the Mather driveway.

Using information communicated at the meeting, City Staff will begin working with Alderman Fiske, Mather, Power Construction, and the neighborhood to improve (and enforce) the Construction Management Plan. Future meetings will be planned.