By Corinne LestchThe Daily Northwestern
As downtown Evanston continues to reach for the sky, city officials are looking into ways to simplify the distinction between residential and commercial areas.
The city’s Downtown Plan Committee is in the process of standardizing and simplifying current zoning districts in downtown Evanston.
Evanston’s Plan Commission simplified the existing downtown map, which includes approximately 40 different zoning designations, and replaced it with a new map including three subareas: downtown, traditional and transitional, General Planner Tracy Norfleet said in a meeting Friday.
The traditional zone would include “areas in town where people like the scale and that they think are cute,” Norfleet said, and the transitional distinction would be placed on the fringes of downtown.
Members of the committee chose this option over several others presented by the city. The Evanston City Council would have to approve the change for it to take effect.
Traditional and transitional are further simplified into TRS1 and TRS2, which are exclusively residential and commercial zones, respectively. These zones allow for a smoother transition from residential areas to downtown.
“I think it’s most interesting that they are solidifying the requirements for the transitional district,” said Diane Lequar, who represented the Hinman House Condominium Association at the meeting. “Those areas have been the thorniest for the Plan Commission and public because there was such a variety of zoning requirements and development allowances.”
Lequar said she made sure she attended the meeting because an “enormous building was proposed to go right next to us” at Hinman Grove Neighbors, and she is concerned about the transitional zones.
In March 2006, Lequar and other members of Hinman Grove Neighbors opposed the Optima Promenade, an 18-story development proposed by Optima Esplanade at 1515 Chicago Ave.
Although existing zoning rules allow developments of this height under certain conditions, these residents had commented that the purpose of the law was to promote a “transitional zone” between downtown and residential areas.
Lequar said she supported the new system as a way to make things easier for residents and others.
“They’re taking a complicated patchwork quilt of zoning regulations and simplifying it for everyone – the developers, city staff and public,” Lequar said.
Officials continue to discuss issues of large development outside the center of downtown. Norfleet said the issue is complex, but by standardizing and renaming the current zoning districts, the transition from downtown to residential areas should be more palatable to residents.
Further discussion of the issue will continue in the committee’s meeting on May 16.
Reach Corinne Lestch at [email protected].
