Child-care firm wins zoning OK for Orrington site

• Reprints

Updated: February 27, 2012 8:41AM

Evanston City Council members cleared the way for a company to gain a major foothold in the city’s child-care market.

With no discussion Monday, aldermen approved a request for special zoning sought by the company, Bright Horizons, to operate a child-care center on two floors of a building at 1629 Orrington Ave.

The building, formerly home to a Walgreens drug store and a Borders book store, has been vacant for roughly 10 years.

Bright Horizons operates centers throughout the country as well as internationally. In Evanston, the firm operates a center with some 80 children at 1000 Central Street, across from NorthShore University HealthSystem’s Evanston Hospital.

In discussions, some smaller child-care operators in Evanston had voiced concern that approval would cause a further glut in the market for 3- to 5-year-olds and could lead to the closing of some smaller operations.

Speaking during citizen comment Monday, Marsha Fincher, owner of Little Lambs, a child-care center licensed for 10 children, expressed concern about safety, noting the Bright Horizons center “is located in the heart of downtown, where streets are so busy.”

Previously, Deborah Brown, vice president of northwest client services for Bright Horizons, told Zoning Board members that the company is proposing to serve 308 children at the site, hoping to fulfill a community need with large waiting lists in other day-care operations.

“There is a lot of good-quality child care in Evanston,” she told the members. “There just isn’t enough.”

She said the center, once up and running, will bring foot traffic to that part of downtown, hit hard by vacancies during the economic downtown.

Evanston Hospital and Northwestern University are among backers of the proposal, with Northwestern sponsoring 60 spots.

Bright Horizons is proposing to spend more than $5 million to upgrade the 25,000-square-foot building.