Plan Commission to inform community of future project ideas

Mass mailings meant to enhance resident awareness, involvement

By Mike Cherney

The Daily Northwestern

In an effort to involve more citizens in a sweeping plan for community improvements, the Evanston Plan Commission voted Wednesday to mail information on the project to residents, tenants and property owners in parts of the Second and Fifth wards.

The citizen-run commission resolved to hold a special meeting June 23 to discuss and revise a neighborhood planning report, which the commission has been working on for three years. The report focuses on neighborhoods surrounding Green Bay Road, and near the corners of Church Street and Dodge Avenue and of Simpson Street and Ashland Avenue.

The draft report calls for increasing economic development, improving public infrastructure, building community bonds and enhancing public safety. It recommends actions ranging from planting more trees to giving financial incentives, such as tax increment financing, to local businesses.

“(The plan includes) a range of things the community thought might improve their neighborhood, and (make it) a place they would like to see in the next 10 years,” said Susan Guderley, a neighborhood planner.

Although commission members largely supported the plan, some voiced concerns that it would be impossible to implement without creating a clear set of priorities.

“This is an incredibly comprehensive piece of work,” said Douglas Doetsch, vice chair of the committee. “The one concern I have is to prioritize. We would have to hire five staffers on a full-time basis to deal with this.”

In a discussion largely focused on the future, commissioners also were concerned with eventually presenting the plan to Evanston City Council, which would have to give the go-ahead for many of the report’s goals to become reality.

“As the Plan Commission, the question is how to present this up to the City Council,” said John Lyman, an associate member of the commission. “If we don’t move forward, we’re not going to get there.”

While Lyman stressed the necessity of public hearings, some Evanston residents suggested that the best way to move forward would be getting the community more involved — even though the subcommittees drafting the report for the past three years were largely open to the public.

“One of the things that upsets me is that we talk about economic development, but who is the economic development for?” said Evanston resident Betty Ester. “There’s a lot of things to be done. You do not have the whole community behind it.”

Commission member Sharon Bowie said that residents who are not involved in neighborhood associations might not have participated in drafting the report so far.

“As for community input, I know for a fact that not everyone in the Fifth ward is associated with neighborhood groups,” Bowie said. “They may only be getting information by mouth, and it may not be accurate.”

Following an idea by Ald. Melissa Wynne (3rd), the commission decided to mass-mail information to people in the affected geographic area.

“I’d suggest that one of you make a motion for an all-postal (mailing),” said Wynne, who was in the audience at the meeting. “At that point people will choose to get involved or not.”