In January, Evanston adopted its first comprehensive plan in more than 25 years. Now the city is turning to a divisive zoning overhaul. Before it manages to complete these rezoning measures, the city may find the state has already settled its most contested housing debates.
Gov. JB Pritzker’s Building Up Illinois Developments plan would override local zoning laws across the state to legalize duplexes, fourplexes and accessory dwelling units on virtually any residential lot; streamline housing permitting; and pour $250 million in state funding into affordable, middle housing development.
“This is an ambitious slate of reforms designed to eliminate unnecessary barriers and lower costs for housing construction, produce a wider range of family-friendly housing types and streamline construction processes,” Pritzker said in his February State of the State address.
The city’s comprehensive plan and the state’s BUILD plan share many of the same goals. The comprehensive plan calls for the development of multi-unit housing in certain mixed-use and downtown districts, allowing for new buildings without special permits or discretionary review.
The city’s 1993 zoning code, which restricts most residential land to single-family homes, will remain on the books until the rewrite is finished. BUILD would short-circuit that wait.
Some residents have expressed support for this move.
“I think it would be great if this happens because it eliminates all that debate around legalizing multi-units in Evanston,” Frank Hill, co-founder of Rezoning for a Better Evanston, said.
Hill added that the plan would allow the city to home in on anti-displacement measures, which he described as “what everyone says they’re worried about.”
Evanston’s Black population fell from 22.5% in 2000 to 14.4% in 2024, according to U.S. Census data. Roger Williams, Hill’s co-founder at Rezoning for a Better Evanston, attributes this to rising housing costs.
“The reason I’m in this game is the fact that so many Black people are being displaced out of Evanston,” Williams said. “They can’t afford to live here. So if you start at least by increasing the supply of homes, you will attack that problem.”
BUILD targets the “missing middle,” which is defined as units affordable to households earning 80-140% of the area median income, according to a September 2024 report from the Ad-Hoc Missing Middle Housing Solutions Advisory Committee.
The plan aims to address a statewide shortage of 142,000 homes identified in a 2024 study conducted by the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and the Illinois Economic Policy Institute. However, it does not fund nor require anti-displacement programs.
Williams and Hill emphasized displacement as a key issue in addition to supply-side solutions. Some displacement-focused protections already exist in Evanston through its Inclusionary Housing Ordinance.
“Many people talk about why they love Evanston because they love the diversity,” Williams said. “But Evanston is segregated by race and income. With anti-displacement strategies, we right some of the wrongs that were done in the past.”
Seventh Ward resident Mary Rosinski is skeptical that a statewide framework can address Evanston’s specific affordability needs.
Rosinski pointed to existing affordable housing programs in Evanston that she said have not been assessed to determine “who is being serviced and how we can be more effective.” Individual municipalities should be able to conduct their own housing needs assessments before acceding to a statewide template, she said.
She also criticized the Housing Gap Analysis report, a 2025 study used to estimate affordability gaps in Evanston. Rosinski said the data is not granular enough to capture the nuances of housing needs in Evanston.
“Not knowing who you’re building for seems to be a folly,” she said.
BUILD would loosen restrictions on height, distance from the street and size of new developments.
Without more restrictive local zoning rules, Rosinski said she is worried that new construction will change the character of the city.
“If you don’t control how high you can put it or make it have a roof line so light can shine in, you will create a city of boxes,” Rosinski said.
She added that building without knowing exactly what kind of affordable housing a community needs, or without establishing a clear path to homeownership, risks pushing out lower-income residents.
Sarah Petersen, executive director of Open Communities, an Evanston fair housing nonprofit, welcomed BUILD’s statewide ambitions but said the city’s local work remains important.
“With zoning reform and building housing, it’s great to have a regional approach,” Petersen said. “When we try to address these solutions in little pockets, it’s not as effective.”
She pointed to the city’s Inclusionary Housing Ordinance and the goals laid out in the Housing4All plan, which City Council voted to table earlier this month, as key supplements to state-level pushes.
“Housing supply is essential,” she said. “You also need to look at other strategies to make sure that we’re preventing gentrification and displacement.”
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— Evanston’s Black population shrinks as city looks to address housing affordability
