Last Monday night was a familiar scene in Evanston city government. The date came and went and — surprise, surprise — there was no decision about the Northeast Evanston Historic District. Of course not. Evanston City Council does its best work under pressure. It routinely makes key decisions after midnight. This is a council that debates an issue for weeks or months before finally deciding to debate it some more.
The latest instance of this rather inefficient council strategy at work is the Northeast Evanston Historic District. After a debate that started more than six months ago and included hours upon hours of meetings, testimony and hearings, aldermen pulled a last-minute punch by suggesting a change to the boundaries of the district. The whole proposal has been sent back to the Planning and Development Committee for “further dialogue.”
Further dialogue? After half a year of debate, it seems unlikely that another meeting will change anyone’s mind. Both sides know each other’s arguments, Northwestern has made its position clear and the experts have spoken. Now the decision is in the powerful hands of the aldermen. But they dropped the ball. By moving back the vote, nothing was accomplished, and a lot was lost in the process.
The idea of aldermen in one night fiddling with boundaries that took months to define reeks of a political maneuver — gaining votes at the expense of preservation. But if there is any merit to the idea of a boundary change, why didn’t aldermen bring it up months ago when the Preservation Committee was still meeting and when architectural experts were reviewing the proposal?
For residents who have been living under the threat of the proposed district and devoting hours to campaigning either for or against it, the council’s failure to make a decision is a huge disappointment.
Evanston resident Ruth Ann Hladish said at last Monday’s meeting that she was upset the council had decided not to vote.
“I think it’s terrible,” Hladish said. “We’ve been coming to the meetings for months and signing petitions. We want them to take a vote. How long are they going to drag it out? How many times do we have to tell them how we feel?”
How long, indeed. A pattern seems to be developing here. For those who remember this year’s budget hearings, the council spent the better part of two months debating the budget and holding workshops, only to postpone the decision on the scheduled day. For residents who take the time to come to meetings and voice their opinion, the council’s lack of action is at best inconvenient, at worst, a sign of disrespect.
This Thursday, the Planning and Development Committee will meet again to discuss possible amendments to the historic district and hear public comment.
Hopefully they’ll make a decision about the district before the Plex really is old enough to merit historic status.
