North Cook News

At the March 27th council meeting, city officials from Evanston presented their plans for a new Comprehensive plan and Zoning code for the city.

 The city put out a request for proposals for a new Strategic Plan and Comprehensive Plan in 2022. However, it never awarded any contracts for the project and set about making separate processes for developing goals for city council and how the city would implement them and provide services. Officials announced that on April 6th, they will be requesting a new RFP for a Comprehensive Plan and new Zoning Code review and recommendations for the city, as these two items fits together very well and will allow the city to refresh how they serve their constituents.

"So our current comprehensive plan was adopted in 2000," said Meagan Jones, Neighborhood and Land Use Planner. "So it's almost 23 years old. And to that point, it doesn't really contemplate a number of the regional and global changes that have happened since then. Some of the economic fluctuations that have occurred, the various technology that has been developed in that time, the increased attention to climate change and of course the COVID 19 pandemic, which we have seen, has exacerbated some of the existing issues that were already existing in a lot of our cities and towns."

The current plan also doesn't focus on issues such as aging in place, a declining minority population, the polarization of wealth within the community, reparations, the loss of brick and mortar retail within town, and environmental health disparities, she said.

"It also doesn't really incorporate some of the other plans that have been developed since the adoption of the comprehensive plan," Jones added. "There are a number of plans that even though they may have been a springboard from the comprehensive plan, they may conflict with parts of the comprehensive plan. And there are some plans that have been more recently created that begin to address some of the previous issues that aren't really incorporated into the plan that's helping to guide those decisions."

The city staff feels this new joint RFP will appeal to more urban planning designers and firms in the area, and would help build on each other and make for a more comprehensive understanding of the cityscape and ease of making decisions on developments and zoning in regards to their comprehensive plan. The city really wants to make this a modern and equitable process, from the very beginning all the way to the final product. They are looking to collaborate with the public on the planning process to get their input on the new Comprehensive Plan, which is a long range guideline for the city to move them towards their goals for the future of the community, using aspects like housing, retail, sustainability, services, and other features.

The current zoning code is even older than their current Comprehensive Plan, being adopted in 1993. The city council has made countless amendments to it over the years to better represent community wants and needs, and just to update it to modern developments. The city staff want and new zoning code and map to better reflect current city zonings and future plans, and to create an easier and simpler zoning process for developers and residents alike. This will also allow them to make changes to zoning definitions would do not reflect current uses or understandings. The city will look for a contract to award to meet these new goals, hoping to authorize that contract at the end of July.