Revamped church proposal proves merit with Wilmette zoning board

A resurrected proposal from a “Wilmette staple” now has the blessing of a key village advisory board.

Wilmette’s Zoning Board of Appeals during its Monday, Sept. 28 meeting unanimously supported plans from Saints Joseph and Francis Xavier Parish for a school addition and extensive campus renovations to its property at 808 Linden Ave.

The Catholic Bishop of Chicago, on behalf of St. Francis Xavier School, is proposing an addition, new parking lot, new playground and several other updates to the Wilmette school, as first detailed by The Record earlier this year.

The parish’s original plans were withdrawn this spring after fierce neighborhood opposition and a unanimous recommendation for denial from the zoning board.

Adverse feedback toward the first proposal largely related to community concerns regarding a lack of community benefit, the scale of the proposed addition building, traffic management, the visibility of the parking and what planners summarized as the “erosion of the historic look and feel of the neighborhood.”

“Following our meeting in March, we clearly heard that more work was needed,” said Joseph D’Arco, operations director of Saints Joseph and Francis Xavier, to commissioners Sept. 28.

He added that planners made 15 “meaningful and significant changes” to the large-scale pitch since the first version.

Zoning commissioners during the Sept. 28 session were the first to weigh in on the parish’s revised efforts that began to publicly resurface this summer.

Inside the Proposal

The crux of the proposal remains as planners are still aiming to remove the two-story former school building located on the southwest corner of the site and the house at 825 Greenleaf Ave., which is owned by Saints JFX.

According to planning documents, the addition contains 16 classrooms over the two floors, as well as offices, restrooms and a teachers lounge. Per documents submitted to the village, following the addition, the school will have 30 total classrooms.

Planning documents detail that the single-family home and detached garage at 825 Greenleaf and the existing staff parking lot are proposed to be demolished to accommodate a new playground.

But, the first “major change” to the effort is the retaining of a portion of the former convent building, which most recently serves as the administrative building.

This update, D’Arco said, will “allow the preservation of the most iconic portion of the building located at the corner of 9th and Greenleaf,” and will allow the parish to keep the chapel on the second floor.

D’Arco noted this revision aims to address concerns about the removal of a historic building and a negative impact on the character of the neighborhood.

The original plan also caught the ire of locals for the initially proposed location of the addition, which detractors suggested was too overwhelming in its scale and placement.

Under the new pitch, the location of the addition is 50 feet further to the west, against the 9th Street setback line. The proposed height was also lowered to match the height of the existing gym and is now placed more than 120 feet away from the nearest neighbor, D’Arco said.

Regarding parking, the latest version reduces the overall parking surface proposed by more than 30% and the south and west sides of the parking are shifted away from the property lines.

To address concerns related to a lack of community benefit, a new public-facing sculpture garden at the corner of Linden Avenue and 9th Street as well as an occupiable buffer area were added to the proposal.

D’Arco told the board that the proposal now has support from approximately 85% of neighbors with a direct view of the campus. He added that the parish reduced opposition from the immediate adjacent neighbors from five to zero.

Why Now?

In documents submitted to the village, Saints Joseph and Francis Xavier officials say the driving forces behind the propsed addition are “keeping pace with the dynamic trends and requirements of current full-time educational programming, enhancing child safety and maintaining the success” of the school’s “faith and education-based programs.”

For the school to “continue to thrive,” representatives say “teachers and students require access to flexible rooms and common spaces” and that students “require access to those spaces in a fully ADA-compliant manner and without undue burden in accessing shared spaces.”

More specifically, in its project narrative to the village, school officials said “the post-merger relocation (the organizations merged in 2019) of older students from the SJ campus to the SFX campus, an increased need for learning specialists at the SFX Campus and a post-COVID shift to a 3-home room per grade education model are a few of the reasons why Saints JFX is currently pursuing its improvement plans for the SFX Campus.”

Colleen Larkin, who serves as the principal overseeing both the St. Joseph and St. Francis Xavier campuses, told commissioners Monday night that the goal of the project is “to provide a supportive and appropriately challenging environment for every child at Saints JFX school.”

The ability to create a contiguous facility through the plan will allow students, staff and community members to safely access classrooms and share learning spaces and maximize instructional time, she noted.

Saints Joseph and Francis Xavier Parish currently own seven parcels in the 800 block of Greenleaf and Linden avenues in Wilmette.

In 2018, the east building on its campus was expanded to add classroom spaces, an atrium, a library and a new cafeteria.

Then, in 2019, St. Joseph Parish and St. Francis Xavier Parish merged as part of the archdiocese of Chicago’s Renew My Church restructuring plan, creating Saints Joseph and Francis Xavier Parish.

According to documents from the parish, the schools were unified the following school year in 2019-’20 with early childhood education housed on the St. Joseph campus located at the northeast corner of Ridge Road and Lake Avenue and K-8 students housed on the St. Francis Xavier campus located between 8th and 9th streets and Linden and Greenleaf avenues.

Saints JFX in 2025 acquired the residential lot located at 825 Greenleaf, which resulted in its property encompassing roughly three-quarters of a Wilmette block.

“Owning this significant parcel of land, which is a single contiguous parcel but for the presence of the public alley, allows the school to pursue a sustainable, long-term solution to addressing operational issues and challenges regarding student safety and access to adequate green space,” school representatives say in their project documents.

‘Not a perfect plan but a lot of improvements’

After extensive vetting of the proposal throughout the meeting, zoning commissioners were clear in their support for the revised plans.

Commissioner Ryrie Pellaton opened by saying it was not a “perfect plan” but that there were a “lot of improvements.”

“It’s not that we’re looking for an improved plan or a best plan; we’re looking for one that reduces the number of variances, reduces the size of the variances that are required that meets all of the standards and review and, in my opinion, they have done that to a great extent and virtually all of the questions that I asked have been explained,” he said.

Pellaton concluded that “all of what I have seen has led me to be willing to support this application.”

Board member Karl Camillucci said that it was evident that the applicant did “a lot of work talking to neighbors.” He showed support for the efforts at improving the streetscapes along some of the key points of the project. He also noted that the second proposal represents something that is common in similar cases.

“For a project like this, it’s very common for the first proposal to not quite get it right and for there to be community participation and feedback and for the applicant to assess that and come back with a much improved project and I think that’s what we have here,” he said.

The plan, ultimately, is contingent upon the vacation of an alley on the property and a lot consolidation. The zoning board was not tasked with reviewing the merits of the approvals needed for those two items. Those aspects will be reviewed by Wilmette’s Plan Commission and Village Board.

The Plan Commission is scheduled to first review those aspects of the proposal at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 5.

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