Evanston’s Plan Commission voted Wednesday night to recommend that City Council rezone Kendall College’s property, in an effort to encourage the college’s administrators to open up about its possible plans to move.
“If you’re looking for a way for Kendall to sit down and talk with the city, recommend that it be zoned R1 (for single-family housing),” said Arthur Alterson, Evanston’s zoning administrator.
Kendall’s 3.3-acre property bordering Northwestern’s campus might be sold in order to finance the college’s possible move, Kendall President Howard Tullman said last week. “We’ve outgrown our present facilities, and we’re looking at alternatives,” he said. “There have been no final arrangements.”
The Plan Commission voted 6-1 Wednesday to recommend Kendall’s land be rezoned to permit only residential use but intentionally neglected to specify what type of housing would be most appropriate for the site.
All of the residents speaking at the meeting lobbied to change the property to an R1, or single-family residential, classification. The residents said they do not want to see dense or high-rise housing built on the property. But neighbors and city officials who spoke at Wednesday’s meeting said Kendall officials made little effort to respond to neighbors concerns about the school’s plans for the site.
Alterson said rezoning the current Kendall property for residential use would affect Kendall even if it stays where it is.
Should the council rezone, Kendall could remain on the property but could neither legally expand nor rebuild the facilities in the event that it is destroyed by fire or natural disaster.
Evanston resident and NU Law Prof. Steven Lubet said he is familiar with negotiation strategy and guessed at Kendall’s reasons for silence.
“In negotiations information is power,” Lubet said, “and they’ve got the power.”
Residents of the area near Colfax Street and Orrington Avenue, where Kendall is located, told the commission Wednesday they did not want the area to remain zoned for use by colleges or universities. Many neighbors said they worried NU dorms or classrooms would be constructed on the property, which they said would bring increased population density, high noise levels and beer cans left on lawns.
“We need to maintain the residential feel of our neighborhood,” said Nick Agnew of the 800 block of Colfax Street. “We’ve seen an increased amount of traffic. We worry about our children.”
Alan Cubbage, NU’s vice president for university relations, told The Daily last week that NU had no interest in buying the property and would let the city know if it changed its mind.
Robert Atkins, president of Northwestern Neighbors, said his group sees the possible sale of the property as a chance to improve Evanston. “This is an opportunity to say that this city is interested in neighborhoods, not in institutions,” he said. “Especially those that don’t pay their taxes.”
Under its 1851 charter, NU does not pay property taxes to the city.
Commissioners considered recommending to the city council that the property be rezoned as transitional campus district, which would allow both residential and university use, but the motion met with little support.
In addition to zoning issues, any potential developers of the Kendall land will also have to appear before the Plan Commission to request permission to tear down the buildings because they are in a historic preservation district.
