What used to be a fully operational emergency room entrance is now boarded up with plywood, and the aging of the wooden windows has caused even the boards to loosen.

After more than a decade of vacancy, the old Burnham Hospital still stands at 407 S. Fourth St., occupied only by old desks and empty cups strewn across the floor. But there is still hope for the eyesore at the corner of Fourth Street and Springfield Avenue.

The complex is set to be demolished by March 31, 2004.

This September, the Champaign City Council voted 8-0 to begin negotiations with the Atkins Group on the Burnham Hospital redevelopment project. The goal of the project is to replace the old hospital and all of its facilities with an urban neighborhood that will include residential buildings, restaurants, coffee shops and general or high-tech offices.

Upon completion in August 2005, city officials say the project will beautify the area and act as a catalyst for further development.

"I think it's a great project," said Champaign Mayor Jerry Schweighart. "The building has been sitting there for 10 years without anything good happening, and now we have an opportunity to have a positive effect on the site."

Champaign City Council member Tom Bruno is also optimistic about the project. He believes the new development will bring new opportunities to an area that has seen little growth in recent years.

"By seeking a proposal to develop the entire site, we're able to bring in a quality development that will link Campustown to downtown and raise the property values for blocks," Bruno said.

City officials compared the new development to the Bucktown neighborhood in Chicago. It will include a pedestrian-oriented commercial district in the vicinity of Stoughton and Third streets, which will be the downtown area of the neighborhood. One goal of the project is to make coffee shops and restaurants convenient and easily accessible to people living in the new development.

The current design of the project also calls for 30 percent of the complex to be four-bedroom apartments.

In a memo to the Champaign City Council on Sept. 5, Steven Carter, city manager, said the four-bedroom apartments are necessary to make the project economically feasible and that, "limiting that mix to 30 percent of the overall (development) will prevent it from negatively impacting the other target markets of graduate students, empty nesters and young professionals."

But some in the council worry that the high price tag of the new upscale condos, implemented with the intention of targeting young professionals, will not be enough to discourage undergrads from moving in and dominating its population.

Kathy Ennen, Champaign City Council member, supported the project wholeheartedly at a city council meeting Sept. 5. In reference to the demolition of the hospital, she said, "It's way past time for that thing to be gone."

Still, Ennen was skeptical of the proposal to include four-bedroom apartments. She fears they will attract too many party-hungry undergraduates and that, if the undergrads end up living there, the partying atmosphere will dissuade young professionals and couples from moving in.

Ennen, who is also a professor of nursing at the University, used her students' living situations as an example of why the developer must take great care to make sure the new development does not turn into undergraduate housing.

"There are people not interested in (renting) units with partying undergrad U of I students," she said.

Bruno shares some of the same hesitancies as Ennen and believes a better plan must be drafted to successfully combine four-bedroom apartments with the rest of the units.

"I don't have any problem with them (the apartments) existing," Bruno said. "However, if you are going to try to blend them in with what you see as upscale one-bedroom, two-bedroom apartments, I'm not sure that that blend will work well together."

He said he does not believe married couples can live side-by-side with college students.

"I just don't know of any example where ... where a young married couple wants to buy an apartment in a building full of 19- and 20-year-olds," Bruno said.

Bruno is also skeptical of the plan to build expensive condos with the hope that the price in itself will be enough to deter students from moving in.

"Even if they're expensive, there are still undergraduates with great amounts of disposable income," said Bruno at the Sept. 5 meeting.

On the other hand, Champaign resident Jackie McGhee said she believes four-bedroom apartment buildings are necessary to accommodate the growing number of students each year.

"I'm giving everybody a chance," McGhee said. "The students that just came here are living in basements. If they tear that (Burnham Hospital) down, it could fit 1,500 of them."

In addition, McGhee said if the city builds nice apartments, students might find themselves liking it enough to settle down and stay in Champaign after graduating.

"If you are welcoming more students here you have to upgrade it (the campus)," McGhee said. "Why not let them stay here? Some might not leave and find that they like it here."