The city wants to hear your thoughts on the plans for the Fifth Ward school and the Fleetwood-Jourdain Community Center and is asking people to fill out an online questionnaire about the Fifth Ward school campus project.
“It’s important to get as much feedback as possible on this decision,” said Fifth Ward Council Member Bobby Burns.
The questionnaire, which is available in English and Spanish, will be available until 5 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 15.
- Proposed Fifth Ward Campus site concepts
- Fifth Ward Campus project video
- Fifth Ward community input questionnaire (English)
- Encuesta de opinión comunitaria del quinto distrito (Spanish)
Burns said the City Council will discuss the results at its first meeting in January.
Recent community meeting
On Dec. 6, more than 150 Evanstonians crowded the Fleetwood-Jourdain Community Center to hear the plans for a community meeting about the new historic Evanston/Skokie School District 65 neighborhood school and campus.
Several Fifth Ward residents spoke in opposition to building a new community center. While others, such as Burns and former director of Family Focus and former Fifth Ward Council member Delores Holmes, were excited by the possibilities of the campus. And still others came to listen and absorb.
People were shown the designs and could review the four proposed site plans – the same plans that District 65 staff, city staff and Cordogan Clark, the architecture and construction firm, will present to the City Council on Dec. 12.
Site plan concept one is the only currently proposed option that keeps the community center as is. But at a cost. It also eliminates green space and Foster Field.
“Concept one has strips of green space,” Burns said. “You can’t play a football game on that. I feel passionate about protecting our green space. We need to preserve our natural environment as much as possible.”
If concept one is selected, Burns said, all of the sports programs, festivals and events that take place on Foster Field will have to be placed elsewhere.
The other three options propose demolishing Fleetwood-Jourdain and rebuilding an improved community center.
Rebuilding Fleetwood-Jourdain could offer the possibility of a community indoor swimming pool and a permanent, year-round roller skating rink.