Mayor Daniel Biss cited former President Barack Obama’s pro-development speech this week as he welcomed residents to an Envision Evanston workshop on Saturday.
Obama said at the Democratic National Convention on Tuesday: “If we want to make it easier for young people to own their own homes, we need to build more housing units and eliminate some of the outdated laws and regulations that have made it difficult for working people in this country to build their own homes.”
“We don’t often hear national figures speak out on zoning issues,” Biss said, “but President Obama has given us the mandate. Now we have to go out and make it happen.”
The pro-development stance is also part of Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential platform, prompting Politico to say that Democrats are pushing for “Build, Baby, Build” and Mother Jones to conclude that the Democratic Party has “finally gone YIMBY” (Yes, In My Back Yard).
The consultants responsible for drawing up a new master plan and a new zoning code asked citizens on Saturday for feedback on three conceptual examples of how certain areas in the city could be redesigned to create more housing.
One location, just over a block west of the mayor’s house, is Hot Dog Island – where Central Street, Crawford Avenue and Gross Point Road meet.
Using software that allowed Suhag Kansara of the consulting team to change the designs on the fly, the consultants presented a series of color-coded options for redesigning the intersection: salmon colors represent retail space, various shades of yellow for residential units with different numbers of bedrooms, and blue for office space.
According to Kansara, the design shown above could create about 145 new housing units – 68 one-bedroom, 43 two-bedroom and 34 three-bedroom.
Consultant Mitchell Silver said all three sites presented were merely test concepts that illustrate “Evanston’s growth potential.”
“The property owners are not on board,” Silver said, adding that they may be happy with their existing structures.
Ashley Farrell said people her age really want to buy a single-family home in Evanston. “You’re doing a great job,” she told the consultants.
Valerie Kretchmer, who recently retired after 37 years as a planning consultant, said she did not want the new zoning code to require commercial space on the ground floor. Too much of it is currently empty, she added. “But if it’s optional, I have no problem with it.”
Another resident questioned whether the Hot Dog Island site, which is on a bus route but far from a train station, was suitable for such intensive development.
And Dave Galloway of Design Evanston said the area needs more retail space, including a grocery store, so residents are less dependent on their cars.
Carl Klein of the city’s Historic Preservation Commission said the sidewalks need to be wider so people have somewhere to sit while watching the Independence Day parade.
After a lunch break, the group explored designs for the redevelopment of the Evanston Plaza shopping center, which is centered on the Valle Produce store, and the immediate surrounding area.
Rob Anthony, president of Community Partners for Affordable Housing, said there is no need to replace Valle with housing. Valle could be on the ground floor with five residential floors above.
Silver said this type of mall redevelopment is becoming more common across the country, citing two projects in North Carolina, where he lives – Park West Village in Morrisville and Fenton in Cary.
Sue Loellbach, advocacy director for Connections for the Homeless, said there are currently at least 3,000 households in the city that do not have affordable housing.
She said she would like to see model calculations of what it would take to add enough housing units to fully meet that need – using a combination of market-rate and subsidized housing.
She said she liked the idea of increasing population density in several areas across the city, “so that not everything is in the 5th District and not everything is downtown.”
The third concept examined the potential development of a block in downtown Evanston that now includes two city-owned surface parking lots.
Residents debated the best way to use the site and what else could be built downtown. John Cleary proposed converting the so-called library parking lot on Chicago Avenue into an office building that would become Evanston’s new city hall.
