An interactive website for neighborhood news and civic engagement will launch Tuesday in Evanston.

Local information website EveryBlock will expand to Evanston, Oak Park and River Forest, the site’s parent company Comcast announced Monday.

EveryBlock provides localized news and neighborhood updates, and also serves as a discussion forum for residents, according to Comcast. Users can adjust the parameters of EveryBlock for varying distances, from a single block to an entire town.

The site — which serves neighborhoods in the Chicago, Philadelphia, Houston, Boston and Denver areas — initially launched in 2007.

EveryBlock then filtered through many phases of ownership, according to Poynter. NBC News owned EveryBlock when it shuttered the site in February 2013.

Nearly a year later, Comcast revived EveryBlock, according to the release.

“We’ve seen first-hand how helpful it can be for communities,” Matthew Summy, Comcast’s regional vice president of external and government affairs, said in a news release. “Since then, usage has grown significantly, and we’ve added functionality to make it an even more robust experience for users.”

Some of the site’s new features include Open311, which lists the calls for information placed in the area. Comcast’s EveryBlock also encompasses EveryBlock.org, an application builder through which websites can host EveryBlock content on their sites, and a smartphone application that maps major neighborhood developments, such as crimes and business license applications.

“EveryBlock is an amazing tool and platform that Comcast can continue to expand to meet the needs of the communities we serve,” Summy said in the release.

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