City Council appoints members to Landlord Licensing Committee

Evanston Mayor Elizabeth Tisdahl appointed nine members to the newly created Landlord Licensing Committee on Monday night during the city council meeting.

Members included landlord Lisa Pildes, Communication professor Paul Arntson and Steven Monacelli, ASG’s community relations vice president.

They and the other six committee members will evaluate whether it is necessary to propose an ordinance requiring Evanston landlords to apply for a rental license, adding an additional fee.

The possible ordinance would lead to higher fees and stricter requirements for landlords than the existing registration process requires.

Monacelli said the committee’s job is to explore if there is a need for such licensing and if so, what safety and quality standards the license would require of practicing landlords.

“I would not like to see (the ordinance) include some force of enforcement that would unintentionally evict students or non-student residents based on an arbitrary number or subjective definition of a family,” he told the daily after the meeting.

– Susan Du