Mount Prospect OKs low-income apartments

Construction on a four-story building for low-income residents in Mount Prospect will begin early next year assuming all the financing comes through, according to the building’s developer.

“The residents will come from the immediate area, the Northwest suburbs,” said Jessica Berzac, of Daveri Development Group in Chicago. “There is nothing like it around here and there are thousands of residents who grew up in the suburbs and want to stay here.”

The residents could include a blind military veteran or a woman with mental illness, Berzac said.

The Mount Prospect village board recently approved the project, called Myers Place, with a unanimous vote. About 30 people supported the project at the board meeting. No one spoke out against it.

The building site is near the intersection of Busse Road and Dempster Street, next to Culver’s, which will be not affected. Construction will take about a year and residents should move in early 2013, Berzac said.

Plans call for a 31,500-square-foot building housing 18 studio apartments and 21 one-bedroom apartments with a social service office and health clinic on the first floor. In their application, Daveri said the 2.3-acre site has been vacant for years.

“The development will be nestled between more multifamily housing to the north, light commercial and retail to the west and south, and a restaurant to the east,” according to the application.

Daveri also submitted several letters from leaders of local agencies who said there is not enough affordable housing for people with disabilities.

“I can tell you that there is a tremendous shortage of supportive housing for people with mental illness in the Northwest suburbs,” said Joseph Mason, president of the Barrington chapter of the National Alliance of Mental Illness. “The demand is very high and the supply is almost nonexistent.”