With a longtime parishioner providing the only public opposition, St. Vincent Ferrer Parish in River Forest has gotten the go-ahead to build a 5,100-square-foot, multi-purpose hall adjacent to the church, 1530 Jackson Ave.
Village trustees on Feb. 29 voted 4 to 1 to allow the church to obtain a construction permit for the one-story addition on the Lathrop Avenue side the church, which has been a northern gateway to the community since its construction in the 1950s.
Trustee approval came after public hearings before the Development Review Board in December and January. The church had to go through the review process because it had an existing planned development permit for a walkway that was constructed in 2000, Village Administrator Eric Palm said.
Those Development Review Board sessions resulted in reorienting the addition so it would be within “the underlying setbacks,” Nevin Hedlund, St. Vincent’s architect told trustees. As a result, the building will be set back farther from the Lathrop Avenue property line and will be oriented parallel to the church instead of perpendicular to it.
The change in the orientation of the building did not affect the number of parking spaces on site. All of the parking remains on parish property, which takes up an entire block from North Avenue on the north, Lemoyne Street on the south, Jackson Avenue on the east and Lathrop Avenue on the west.
A lot of care was taken so the addition complemented the church as best as possible, Hedlund said.
“We had to make sure the companion building wasn’t taking away the beauty of the church,” Hedlund said. “We maintained the features of the church, its arch windows and added a stone base [to the addition] similar to the stone in the church. The Development Review Board agreed with changes, and we did get a unanimous vote for that.”
But despite his assurances, Trustee Carmela Corsini said she struggled with her vote, and voiced a variety of objections. She feared the dollars that were pledged would not be collected. She worried about cost considerations in maintaining the church. Â
“Is this the right thing to do? We have a need for social space, but I have fears somewhere down the road if … the school gets closed at some point,” Corsini said. “The reorientation makes it worse, because it’s covering more of the façade of the church wall. I know it’s going to pass, but I don’t feel comfortable that the structure will actually complement that building.”
As it turned out, Corsini’s comments were the only words of opposition to the project. In response to a question from Village President Catherine Adduci, Hedlund said the first meeting was attended by two people; there was no public comment. During the second, no one showed up.
The fact that the building was reoriented made it look nicer, Adduci said.
“It works better. It sounds like the DRB and yourselves worked well together to come up a functional and aesthetically beautiful building,” Adduci said.
Announced to the parish last March, the proposed church addition will be 48 feet wide and 107 feet long and approximately 20 feet high. It will be situated on the west side of the church on the existing parking lot and green space on the northwest corner of the site.
The one-story structure will provide the church’s main fellowship function. It will be a social hall that can be partitioned into three separate meeting spaces. A ramp will connect the school and the social hall, which also will serve as the school’s lunchroom. It also will have storage space and bathroom facilities.Â
Parish officials will meet with its architect this week to talk about the next phase of the project and map out a timeline, including setting a firm date to start construction, business manager Jean Finnegan said.
“We’d like to start it the sooner the better. We’re hoping the building will be up by the winter months so we can work [at that time] on the interior. We’ll have a better feel for it next week,” Finnegan said.