Between 20 and 30 Evanston residents showed up at the Church Street Plaza on Saturday afternoon to protest proposed increases in city fees and the city’s portion of the property tax, participants said.

Bearing a bullhorn, fliers and signs saying, “Listen to the people,” members of the Fair Share Action Committee and Foster Park Neighbors rallied between 4:30 and 5:50 p.m. at the corner of Church Street and Maple Avenue. They expressed anger over the 7.24 percent increase in the city’s portion of the property tax proposed by Alds. Arthur Newman (1st), Melissa Wynne (3rd) and Gene Feldman (9th) at the Feb. 18 budget workshop.

The group wanted to target City Council because the council is considering raising taxes and fees instead of searching for other ways to fix the city’s almost $4 million budget deficit, said Mimi Peterson, a co-chairwoman for Fair Share.

Many motorists honked their horns in support, said David Ellis, co-chairman of Fair Share.

The Fair Share Action Committee wants Northwestern to make a voluntary contribution to Evanston to pay for the city services it receives. In March 2000, voters passed a non-binding referendum mandating that aldermen begin negotiating with NU to make a payment to the city. That has not happened, Peterson said.

“Citizens are harboring a feeling of disenfranchisement,” Peterson said. “If the crowd was angry it’s because they’re not being heard.”

If the city continues to increase property taxes, eventually some people will no longer be able to afford to live in Evanston, Peterson said.

Fair Share supporter Jack Weiss said the city must find a way to ease the tax burden on homeowners.

“There are alternatives that they should be looking at, and they’re not,” he said.

The protest was in part a pep rally for tonight’s council meeting, where aldermen are scheduled to adopt a budget, Peterson said. Fair Share supporters plan to attend.

“Fair Share was born on the budget issue, and so we always stay close to the budget,” she said.

But not all viewers were impressed by the protesters’ message. Douglas Fullenwider, general manager for Urban Outfitters, 921 Church St., said the six people working in the store that afternoon were not interested in the protest outside the store’s door.

“We didn’t pay attention because it didn’t seem like that big a deal,” he said.

Fullenwider said he lives in Chicago and was unfamiliar with the Fair Share debate.

But the protesters’ message, Peterson said, was mainly to “raise awareness of Evanston residents.”