“Besides,” she added. “I’m looking forward to a winter where we don’t have to shovel the walks.”

With the condo boom in its seventh year, the pace of construction is starting to slow, said Donna Spicuzzi, housing planner for the city. But it hasn’t stopped.

Focus Development Inc., which is putting up the 253-unit Residences of Sherman Plaza, and Klutznick-Fisher Development Co., are negotiating with the city to construct a 49-story residential and commercial tower at 708 Church St.

Other projects under way include Ferris Homes’ Grand Bend at Green Bay, a 49-unit building at Green Bay Road and Emerson Street, and Roszak/ADC’s Sienna, with 256 units at 1100 Clark St.

The new units are not inexpensive. Prices in the Winthrop Club range from the low $300,000s to more than $1.5 million. At the Grand Bend, they run from about $305,000 to more than $750,000; at Sienna they range from about $230,000 to more than $1 million. In comparison, units at Prairie Central, a 13-unit project in Northwest Evanston run from $500,000 to $750,000.

Some who question the continuing rise of construction cranes downtown suggest future projects should be spread out.”We should be looking closely at how much more development we can take,” said Anna Renee Ross, co-chairman of the city’s 5th Ward Community Development Committee. “Is it logical for there to be so much building in downtown? Do they have to keep building there? It’s already one of the most congested areas on earth.”

Ross would like to see more development — commercial and residential — outside the city’s downtown, particularly on the West Side.

There also is a need for developers to set aside more units as affordable, which is not the case with much of the new construction, said Ross, an Evanston resident and agent with Re/Max NorthCoast in Chicago.

“There are developers who consistently are able to market properties as affordable and do very well financially,” Ross said. “Why can’t we see more of this happening in Evanston? Maybe a developer can offer units at a higher price point and then offer some in their project at significantly lower price points. That way, the firefighters, police officers and other workers can choose whether they want to live in Evanston.

“I’d like the city to control the developers,” Ross added, “rather than the other way around.”

Some residents also have expressed concerns that character-providing vintage buildings are being lost, said Carlos Ruiz, historic preservation coordinator for the city.

“There are buildings that maintain the character of our downtown but are not necessarily landmark buildings,” Ruiz said. “As we review the buildings downtown, we do hear from people who want to preserve some of these buildings that aren’t currently landmarked.”

The city in 2006 established a Downtown Planning Committee, charged with creating guidelines on everything from new construction to parking. They are still preparing recommendations.Ruiz says members of the city’s Historic Preservation Commission have requested that the city offer incentives to developers and owners downtown to preserve the area’s older buildings.

Stuart Schwartz, a real estate agent with Chicago’s @properties, has lived in Evanston for five years. He says he worries that developers are descending upon Evanston too quickly. But, his fears are moderated by the fact the condos are selling.

“I guess you could argue that if they are selling, then there is a need for them,” Schwartz said. “People do want development here to happen in the right way, though. They don’t want Evanston to become another Chicago.”

Mike Stern, managing broker of the Evanston office of Koenig & Strey GMAC Real Estate, says that the city faced a real need for residential projects about five years ago, which has been answered by the new construction.