Park may be step in cleanup of Elgin apartment tower

Elgin leaders Thursday proposed erecting a neighborhood park as the first step in an attempt to clean up a subsidized high-rise apartment complex that some believe is a blight on the city.

Councilmen David Kaptain and Juan Figueroa suggested the city team with residents and the management company of a nine-story, federally subsidized building called Buena Vista Tower.

Kaptain said a park on a triangle-shaped, 0.25-acre site north of the building could help build community spirit and give residents a sense of ownership.

"It's going to be a partnership," said Kaptain before a walking tour of 222 Locust St. Thursday afternoon with about 25 residents, city officials and police. "We could consider making that a neighborhood park (off Route 31) and an entryway to the neighborhood."

The tower was the site of a March 6 drug raid in which eight people were arrested and charged with selling cocaine and marijuana. Six of them lived in the 96-unit building.

Since then, members of the Near West Neighbors Association and other residents have called for the city to take action.

"It's impossible to ignore what's happening in this building," Figueroa said.

Robbie Koverman, property supervisor for Evergreen Real Estate Services, which manages the building, said the firm has installed more security cameras, has pledged to evict people convicted of drug offenses or violent crimes, and will perform $800,000 worth of renovations. She also noted management will monitor who is visiting each apartment and restrict overnight stays from visitors to five a month.

"That's a way to control who is coming in this building," Koverman said. "Once the crackdown begins, people start to realize 'I need to pay attention to who I have at my apartment.' "

Chuck Keysor, president of the Near West Neighbors Association, said Evergreen officials have been responsive to his group's concerns. But Keysor noted a long-term solution is needed.

"From what we've seen so far, it's all good, but it's all short-term," he said. "People will fall in line for a while and it always comes back and we don't want that to happen again."