North Cook News

The Evanston City Council approved a controversial vacation rental license for a residential home. The home is on Lawndale Street, and many neighbors and community members came out to the meeting to voice their opposition to the license. The house is owned by a couple who live in California, but plan to visit their parents who live in Evanston. The house will be available for rent in the times that they are not in town visiting.

"They love Evanston," Carl Berolzheimer, father of one of the homeowners applying for a license told the council. "They intend to make Evanston their future home. Lisa and Steve desire to be able to rent the townhouse using Airbnb to help defray the cost of owning it. And I didn't mention this before, but we are aware that our people do rent their homes in Evanston without complying with the law and getting a license. But they don't want to do it. They want to do it the right way by subscribing to Airbnb because of the standards that they have and that Airbnb has, and to comply with it."

The community members who came to the meeting expressed concerns about the short-term rental property causing safety issues for the young families and children in the neighborhood and preferring that the house be a long-term rental for residents of the area. The current manager of the property, who checks on the house and would be available to solve any issues said and the father of the couple who own the house.

After deliberating with many council members saying that they understood the concerns of the neighbors, the council ended up approving the license with a 5-4 vote. 

Council members said the community members were only talking about potential problems, not problems that have actually happened in Evanston. They were also less concerned about this vacation rental because it was not a large corporation buying a lot of properties, but rather one property owned by people who had family right down the street.