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Aug 09, 2023

Micro homes proposed for 7th Ward

Developer David Wallach says it will be a “pocket neighborhood.” 13 micro homes, 13 x 32 feet each. Two bedrooms. One bathroom. A 10-car parking garage. Green space. And, Wallach told a 7th Ward

Developer David Wallach says it will be a “pocket neighborhood.”

13 micro homes, 13 x 32 feet each. Two bedrooms. One bathroom. A 10-car parking garage. Green space. And, Wallach told a 7th Ward residents meeting on Tuesday night, his proposed site is “the perfect location for this.”

Wallach’s Blue Paint Development wants to put in what the city officially calls “efficiency homes” in the 1900 block of Grant Street, currently occupied by a house that would come down, and a vacant lot.

The city still needs to sign off on a zoning change, approve the design, and review potential issues such as water runoff before the project could be built. There’s no timetable yet for any votes.

The $3 million development would have ten detached homes at street level, and three more detached units on top of the parking garage in the rear of the project.

No basements, but there is storage space.

At around $300,000 apiece, the “market driven” units should “go very quickly,” Wallach said.

“You have people who want to live in Evanston, but can’t afford it,” he added.

With space in between the small units along with paved paths, “the point,” Wallach said, “is to make it walkable and not just jam things in.”

The property is about 100 feet wide and unusually deep for Evanston at about 300 feet. The site is flanked by townhomes on each side, but located in an otherwise primarily single-family neighborhood.

There were some neighborhood questions, about traffic and water runoff.

GionMatthias Schelbert lives two doors away from the proposed development.

“I’m very skeptical,” he said, disagreeing with the developer that the homes would not be jammed into a small parcel.

Schelbert said a couple of single-family houses would make more sense on the site.

“To me,” he said, “this is just a money grab.”

Not so, said Wallach, who said he is not asking for any city subsidy, and expects the micro homes will not only sell, but add to the city’s tax base.

He also stressed that these units are assembled on site, and not simply built in a factory and trucked in whole.

Some units like that, Wallach said, are terrible, “and candidly, I would not let my dog live in some of the housing that’s being built.”

There are a small number of “pocket neighborhoods” in the U.S., including Chicago.

However, Wallach said historically, zoning laws were designed to keep some people out, by mandating minimum lot size, which led to housing prices many could not afford.

Wallach said there’s a “tremendous need” for micro house projects, but “there are communities that don’t have the balls to do it.”

He’s hoping Evanston will say yes.

Jeff Hirsh joined the Evanston Now reporting team in 2020 after a 40-year award-winning career as a broadcast journalist in Cincinnati, Ohio. More by Jeff Hirsh