EVANSTON, IL — During a marathon special meeting, a narrowly divided Evanston City Council granted preliminary approval to Northwestern University’s request to allow concerts at a rebuilt Ryan Field.
Mayor Daniel Biss, who had previously avoided publicly taking a position on the proposed zoning change, cast the deciding vote to break a 4-4 tie among councilmembers as the seven-and-a-half-hour meeting stretched into Tuesday morning.
“As mayor, I break the tie by voting affirmative,” Biss said. “And with five voting in favor and four voting against, the motion carries, item passes for introduction and will be on the regular City Council agenda on Nov. 13.”
Alds. Krissie Harris, 2nd Ward; Ald. Jonathan Nieuwsma, 4th Ward; Ald. Bobby Burns, 5th Ward; and 8th Ward Ald. Devon Reid all voted in favor of amending the city’s zoning code to allow up to six concerts a year at Ryan Field.
Alds. Clare Kelly, 1st Ward; Melissa Wynne, 3rd Ward; Thomas Suffredin, 6th Ward; and Eleanor Revelle, in whose 7th Ward the stadium is located, voted against the plan. The nine-member council was without 9th Ward Ald. Juan Geracaris, who has recused himself from the process because he is employed by Northwestern.
As for the vote on the plan for the stadium rebuild itself, which Northwestern officials have said is contingent on the approval of its request to re-zone the site for commercial use, councilmembers voted 5-3 in favor, with Wynne’s support for the plan, there was no need for a tiebreaking vote from the mayor.
Earlier this month, after 15 hours of public hearings over three meetings, the Evanston Land Use Commission voted unanimously to recommend the City Council allow the university to tear down its 97-year-old and stadium and build a new, smaller one with a capacity of 35,000 for football games and 28,500 for concerts.
But the commission voted 7-2 to advise alderpeople to reject the zoning code amendment allowing concerts.
Just hours before councilmembers was due to take its first vote on the matter, Northwestern officials issued a news release announcing that they had proposed “an unprecedented series of community benefits in a draft agreement.”
Some of the benefits that it described had already been pledged on behalf of the university as part of the proposal the Land Use Commission recommended against, like a $3 surcharge on concertgoers to provide local school districts $500,000 a year and $2 million in annual guaranteed tax revenue if concerts are approved.
But others — like the re-establishment of a discretionary fund for the mayor and university president to spend as they please — were new.
The last “Good Neighbor Fund” existed from 2015 to 2020, when it was rebranded as the Good Neighbor Racial Equity Fund. It previously provided $1 million a year, which helped to offset some of the expenses born by Evanston taxpayers as a result of the university, which is both the city’s largest landowner and exempt from having to pay property taxes.
The new fund will include $3 million a year for the next 10 years, according to the university’s announcement. During questioning, university representatives admitted that, while the zoning changes are permanent, Northwestern’s proposed financial contributions are not.
In addition to the Good Neighbor Fund, the draft community benefits agreement released just before the start of Monday’s meeting commits to at least $2 million a year in financial aid supporting local high schoolers and “a focused effort to increase applications and admissions to Northwestern from Evanston high school students.”
“We are thrilled for the opportunity to bring this multi-million-dollar investment to Evanston to support the future development, strength and resiliency of our local economy and workforce,” Senior Executive Director of Neighborhood and Community Relations Dave Davis said in the release. “The proposed agreement demonstrates our accountability and steadfast commitment to the betterment of the Evanston community that we all call home.”
According to an economic impact study produced by Johnson Consulting and commissioned by the city of Evanston, six concerts a year would generate nearly $78 million in total additional spending and 510 full-time jobs in Evanston.
Monday’s marathon meeting opened with more than three hours of public comment, with opponents of concerts outnumbering supporters by a roughly 3-1 margin.
Senta Plunkett, village president of Wilmette, delivered a statement opposing the plan on behalf of Evanston’s neighbor to the north. Plunkett said holding for-profit shows in what would be one of the state’s largest concert venues “betrays” the purpose of the site.
“We have studied this project for the past year, and we don’t see how this venue in this neighborhood can successfully manage the traffic, parking, noise and public safety impacts,” Plunkett said. “Since the 1970s, the village of Wilmette, along with the city of Evanston, has consistently objected to the commercialization of Northwestern’s athletic campus.”
Before the final, early-morning votes of the meeting, Nieuwsma introduced several amendments, including standards for maximum noise levels and curfew.
“Northwestern requested several amendments,” Nieuwsma explained. “My motion here is essentially to grant the ones that I am comfortable with. There are others that they requested that I am not comfortable with.”
According to the amendments introduced by the 4th Ward councilmember, if the noise level from a concert exceeds 80 decibels in adjacent residential neighborhoods, the university “shall” be fined $50,000. And if sound systems are still on after 10:15 p.m. on weeknights or 10:30 p.m. on Fridays, Saturdays and days before holidays, the university is on the hook for fines of at least $30,000. Violations of parking standards would result in $25,000 fines.
David DeCarlo, the leader of a neighborhood group opposed to Northwestern’s rezoning called the Most Liveable City Association, issued a statement after the meeting expressing disappointment that four councilmembers and the mayor rejected the Land Use Commission’s recommendation and pledging to continue to fight against the university’s plan.
“Recognizing the rebuild project was in trouble, Northwestern introduced a new proposal at the 11th-hour — apparently negotiated in secret with some city officials, leaving out of the process several members of the City Council and community stakeholders impacted by the project,” DeCarlo said. “But even this new proposal falls far short of the kinds of contributions Northwestern’s peer universities provide to their hometowns—and without demanding a permanent, irreversible zoning change in return. If enacted at the November 13th City Council meeting, our elected officials will have voted to forever cede control of Evanston’s zoning laws to Northwestern.”
A final vote is scheduled for Nov. 13 on the stadium redevelopment plan, the zoning code change allowing concert, which is being classified as a “text amendment” rather than a “map amendment” that would require a seven votes to pass, and increases to liquor and amusement taxes for events at Northwestern’s athletic complex also given preliminary approval Monday.
Earlier: Deny Request For Ryan Field Concerts, Land Use Commission Recommends
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