It was a good night for businesses at Tuesday’s Evanston City Council meeting.
Aldermen voted to create a new type of liquor license designed for live-music venues — but a new blues club, whose request prompted the change, declined to take advantage of it. Also, a City Council committee gave the nod of approval to a gourmet popcorn shop slated for part of the former Student Book Exchange space on Sherman Avenue.
The new liquor license will allow live-music venues to serve alcohol without serving food, as is currently required for any business that serves alcohol. But the owners of Bill’s Blues, which is scheduled to open early next month, told aldermen they would not yet seek the new license.
During the council meeting, aldermen voted to grant the club’s owner, Westwind Unlimited, a standard license.
James Murray, a lawyer for Westwind, said the club’s goal is to open as soon as possible, and the old license is easier to obtain. He said he also did not want the club to be a “lightning rod” for controversy after a debate occurred within the Liquor Control Review Board.
Westwind may seek the new license eventually, but for now it will plan to include a kitchen in the club.
Bill’s Blues would not have to pay for another license if its owners ask for reclassification, said Pat Casey, the city’s director of management and budget.
Aldermen also gave support to another downtown business. The Planning and Development Committee granted preliminary approval for the popcorn shop Gary Poppins to open at 1741 Sherman Ave. Some aldermen have taken issue with the proliferation of type 2 fast-food and carry-out restaurants downtown, because they often generate trash on sidewalks.
The council rejected a type 2 request from a Subway franchisee last month after citing such concerns.
Aldermen will have the final say on Gary Poppins’ application at the next council meeting, on April 21, but owner Gary Seltzer took care to avoid Subway’s fate. He promised the committee he would keep sidewalks clean around his shop when it opens in June.
“I feel a deep commitment to the Evanston community,” he said. “And I feel this is more than just a type 2 restaurant. This a high-end gourmet popcorn shop.”
Ald. Elizabeth Tisdahl (7th) said she voted for the proposal despite concerns about downtown trash.
“I want to vote for this,” she said. “But I don’t want to vote for rats in downtown Evanston.”
Later in the evening, the council debated subsidies to a very different kind of business — affordable housing. Econ Housing Group, which is using $100,000 in federal money to build a duplex at 1813 Lyons St., returned to the Planning and Development Committee in March and asked that aldermen waive a $6,175 building permit fee. The fees can be waived if an applicant demonstrates hardship.
Ald. Gene Feldman (9th) said the developer had “chutzpah” to claim such a need when he was going to make $95,000 in profits off the development.
“We’re getting what we want, he’s getting what he wants,” Feldman said. “That’s enough.”
The cost of the exemption could be put toward much worthier causes — like expanding hours at South Boulevard Beach, Ald. Arthur Newman (1st) said.
But Ald. Ann Rainey (8th) said she was worried that rejecting the request would have a “chilling effect” on the developer’s relationship with Evanston. She said the development would bring “the exact kind of families we’d like to keep in Evanston.”
In other business, the council approved the Fraternal Order of Police labor contract for Evanston’s police sergeants.
Before the council meeting, aldermen heard an annual report on the status of Evanston Township, which handles social services in the city.
