Edited by Michael Bruening

 

February 13, 2025

 

Dear Land Use Commission Members:

 

​​​Your participation as a commission member in the reasoned development of Evanston is being challenged by the Envision Evanston 2045 proposal. Actions within the effort, and actions attempting to force Evanston to accept elements of the proposal circumvent your expertise and the wishes of citizens.

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Envision Evanston 2045 has a multitude of problems. These range from many specific issues such as parking and impact on historic neighborhoods to overarching issues of subversion of fair and typical process and lack of supporting data. However, the most troubling thing is the hidden purpose for which the proposal was conceived and then developed.

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Significant rezoning can be an outcome from months – sometimes years -- of study and reasoned thinking, as shown by comprehensive plans from other municipalities. However, it is evident that Envision Evanston 2045 misused this planning process. This effort started with rezoning as the underlying and guiding purpose and aim. Zoning change was the desired end all along, and Envision Evanston 2045 was merely a means to that end.

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This deception is an effort to undermine the comprehensive planning process, and circumvent meaningful participation of the public, Evanston commissions and committees, and the city council. Essentially, it cloaks an ulterior motive in an altruistic cloth.

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Specific issues with this proposal, which should be a great concern to the Commission, include:

• Unsupported statements and inaccurate assumptions concerning everything from background of existing zoning to the need to upzone for a supposed increase of 8,000+ people in Evanston, along with an overall lack of specifics and supporting data.

• Destruction of neighborhoods through the city from lower-density areas to downtown allowing multi-unit housing and much larger projects without further approval.

• Lack of understanding the development costs of creating multi-unit housing as a supposedly economical way to increase affordable housing.

• Lack of empathy and planning for low-income and middle-class homeowners and renters including many older residents, who will be displaced by new building and the impact of speculation. This proposal has no provision for these people.

• Belief that people will magically stop driving cars and not need parking for cars. Even electric vehicles need parking. And electric charging is among the many infrastructure issues side-stepped by EE2045.

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Finally, there is the still-unaddressed question about the unprecedented demand for urgency in enacting this proposal. Proponents pushing for enactment before local elections is suspicious. Haste degrades the final product. It also reduces meaningful citizen participation. Is the relentless hurry caused by fear that the proposal becomes less supportable when carefully scrutinized?

We urge the Land Use Commission to state that the first draft of Envision Evanston 2045 is too deficient for the Commission to do anything other than give it a negative recommendation. Any new draft of Envision Evanston 2045 has to address and remedy all of the above.