Recap: Planning and Development Committee – Evanston Now

Here's a recap ofour live coverage of tonight's Evanston City Council Planning and Development Committee meeting. The committee has three items on its agenda, including a request to grant a one-year extension of time to start construction on a planned development at 910-938 Custer Ave.

The meeting is scheduled to begin at 6:45 p.m.

A packet with information on the agenda items is available online.

Meeting called to order at 6:52 p.m.

Alderman Eleanor Revelle, 7th Ward, is chairing the meeting. Only four of the seven committee members are present.

P1 - Time extension for planned development at 910-938 Custer Ave.

Alderman Don Wilson, 4th Ward, says one of the developers died recently. Says seems like a reasonable request for an extension.

Related stories

Committee votes to approve.

P2 - Map amendemtn to remove 2044 Wesley Ave. from the oWE West Evanston overlay district

John Cleary, would-be developer of the site, says the property is a former railroad site.

Related stories

Says wants to build townhouses and a three-and-a-half-story apartment building on the property.

Alderman Don Wilson, 4th Ward, says given that the property hasn't been developed under the existing plan, making the proposed changes seem to make sense.

Alderman Ann Rainey, 8th Ward, says doesn't understand why this isn't being embraced. Shame to lose this opportunity. But wants to learn more about it befor a final vote.

Community Development Director Johanna Leonard says Alderman Robin Rue Simmons, 5th Ward, who isn't at the meeting, does support the proposal.

Revelle says seems to still be a lot of uncertainty about what the planned development for the site would look like.

Rainey says there's no danger in introducing it.

Cleary says the project will be able to pay for the cost of remediating soil conditions and removing the retaining wall from the abandoned viaduct.

Alderman Judy Fiske, 1st Ward, asks about water runoff from the site.

Leonard says doesn't yet have a planned development proposal and so haven't reviewed that issue.

Cleary says existing rules would require a street connecting Wesley and Jackson -- which would leave no room to actually build anything.

Fiske proposes keeping the issue in committee.

Wilson says he prefers moving it forward. Want to see something good happen with the property -- whether from this developer or another one.

"Let's get the property moving along so it's put to some useful purpose," Wilson says.

Committee ends up with a tie vote 2-2, which means it goes to CIty Council without a recommendation.

Fiske and Revelle voted against forwarding it to Council.

P3 - Restricting ground floor uses in the D2 District

Wilson says he has concerns about this measure, given rental difficulties downtown now.

Leonard says city has similar restrictions in the Main-Dempster district. Says some merchants don't like having financial institutions that don't create a lot of foot traffic take up ground-floor spaces.

In response to question from Fiske, Leonard says special use applicants usually do their homework and try to plan their storefronts to create more activity.

Wlson says it ends up being very costly to go through the process --and often times it doesn't work out after they've spent tens of thousands of dollars. Would prefer to see more certainty.

Fiske says may not be able to force people to comply with our vision of downtown. Would rather have an occupied building than a vacancy. Appreciates the concept behind the proposal, but not confident it will achieve the goal. Would be more comfortable if had talked to property owners and rental agents downtown first.

Rainey says should keep this in committee until we figure it out.

Motion is to table the proposal to the committee meeting on May 11. Approved unanimously.

Meeting adjourned at 7:28 p.m.

City Council to start at 7:35 p.m.

Go here to read the rest:
Recap: Planning and Development Committee - Evanston Now