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City, University Officials Meet
About Research Park Land

The meeting was called by Alderman Edmund Moran, 6th Ward, the alderman told the RoundTable, in response to closed-session discussions about real estate. He said he invited City Manager Julia Carroll to a meeting with University representatives in September as an observer rather than a participant.

Though Ald. Moran declined to discuss particulars of that meeting, University officials said that the City's possible purchase of the land - either by a negotiated agreement or through its powers of eminent domain - was discussed. Northwestern's "need for zoning relief," should it sell that piece of property, was also brought up, University officials said.

After that meeting, said Ald. Moran, he contacted City Council members individually to tell them about the meeting. First Ward Alderman Cheryl Wollin said she had also been contacted by Ms. Carroll a few days later, and the two had met.

Farmers market or university use for this vacant lot?
Alan Cubbage, vice president for University relations at Northwestern, told the RoundTable that the City had approached the University about purchasing the parcel. The University received that piece of land from the City eight years ago as part of a land swap that enabled the City to develop the south end of the research park with the movie theaters and retail businesses now operating there.

"We were willing to do the swap eight years ago because the City said [the parcel the University received] was zoned for university use," said Mr. Cubbage. "We have a very valuable piece of property."

Mr. Cubbage said it has been "a while" since the City first proposed acquiring the property for the civic center, and "we were not interested because we wanted to have university zoning. We wondered if we could have zoning relief on Sheridan Road." He said Northwestern would agree to a "buffer zone," something that the City has already created just west of Sheridan Road in its T1 and T2 districts.

The tenor of the discussions changed when the City said it would consider taking the property by exercising its powes of eminent domain if a voluntary sale could not be worked out.

Mr. Cubbage said the University felt "blindsided" by the City's announcement. "That strikes us as not in keeping with the good faith of the [land swap] agreement," he said. Northwestern had "refrained from purchasing land already zoned for U1 [the Kendall College Site]," Mr. Cubbage continued, and would likely fight any condemnation in court.

Zoning, rumors and transitional districts
Zoning has been at the center of some City-University struggles over the past several years. At present, Northwestern's land on the east side of Sheridan Road is zoned U-1, for university uses.

Prompted in part by neighbors in the Northwestern area, the City has tried to preserve the residential character of the areas west of the University. Zoning between the intense university uses east of Sheridan Road and the relatively more spacious residential uses to the west is transitional: the City has T1 and T2 districts there, transitional or buffer zones between the two uses.

Day-care facilities, single-family and two-family residents are allowed in T1 districts, said Arlova Jackson of the City's zoning department, to a maximum height of 35 feet. T2 zoning allows more intense use, she said, for faculty offices, as an example.

As the Northeast Evanston Historic (NEHD) was being formed, some properties owned by the University were included, and the University later challenged their addition in court.

Among the items in the consent decree that ended the lawsuit was the creation of a University-City committee, composed of representatives from Northwestern, the City and the First Ward, which would meet regularly to discuss land issues.

As word spread about the September meetings, the number of aldermen who allegedly had spoken with Northwestern or who allegedly had agreed to rezone the Sheridan Road property kept swelling.

Northwestern Neighbors distributed fliers, and speakers attended the Oct. 9 City Council meeting, accusing Ald. Wollin of having participated in the meetings in violation of the consent decree, because the City-University committee had not been involved in the meetings.

Many of the members of Northwestern Neighbors support Judy Fiske, who unsuccessfully challenged Ms. Wollin for the First Ward aldermanic seat and have openly criticized Ald. Wollin since.

Ald. Wollin, who said she had not participated in any meetings with Northwestern officials, told the RoundTable no one called her before putting out the flyer, and she had no knowledge of it until someone called her early in the morning of Oct. 9.

"My concern is how people could outright lie," she said, adding, "I have always supported the protection of transition zoning and have not changed my mind," she added.

Eugene Sunshine, senior vice president for business at Northwestern, said there had been two meetings between City and University officials. He declined to say who was present at the meetings but said he did not know if additional meetings would be held.

Both he and Ald. Wollin said they did not believe the City-University committee should have been involved.

The City Council was scheduled to meet in executive session before the budget policy committee meeting last Monday night.

The new civic center
The previous City Council voted unanimously to move from its present location at 2100 Ridge Ave. Repairs needed on the building have been projected at more than $20 million, extrapolating from studies commissioned by the City in the late 1990s.

That report also noted wasted space - such as wide corridors with supporting pillars - and unused space. City consultants have said that it would be more economical for the City to relocate and sell the present building than to rehab the present building.

An ad-hoc committee to save the civic center disputes those findings and has advocated that the City remain in its present location - or move out only temporarily while the building is being rehabbed.

Alternatively, the group says it would support selling much of the present site if the building, a former Catholic girls' school, were preserved.

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West Side Planning Process Continues Winnowing the Preferred Plan

Based on conclusions about the real estate market by consultant Valerie Kretchmer and Associates that the neighborhood can probably support no more than 20,000 square feet of retail space, the plan calls for ground-floor retail only in the half block east and west of Dodge on the north side of Church and on land now used as a parking lot at the southeast corner of the intersection. It proposes two or three floors of residential units above the retail space.

The plan then calls for three-story, all-residential buildings on the rest of the Church Street frontage from Brown to Darrow avenues.

Earlier plans have called for ground-floor retail uses throughout this area, and the lack of retail in the recently rejected Darrow Corners affordable housing project was among the arguments opponents used against it.

The new plan also calls for flattening the old Mayfair railroad berm, replacing it with a pedestrian and bicycle path and new townhouses on either side of the renewed green space.

About 70 residents attended the meeting at the Evanston Township High School Bacon Cafeteria. No objections were heard to the proposal to turn the storage yard owned by Veolia Environmental Services, formerly Onyx Waste Services, into a townhouse site.

The planners also propose extensive streetscape changes along Church Street and Dodge Avenue - adding bicycle lanes and wider sidewalks, while eliminating some on-street parking. There would also be a new center median on Dodge Avenue in front of the high school and one or more pull-out areas for vehicle loading and unloading on the school grounds.

Neighborhood activist Betty Sue Ester and some other neighbors objected to the median strip, saying it would create snow-removal and littering problems.

But Brad Winick of JJR LLC, the City's planning consultant, said the median could help reduce accidents at the school and channel pedestrian traffic.

Some residents suggested the plan, which calls for construction of 188 new housing units, would lead to gentrification. But the planners said that the proposal's call for multi-family buildings rather than single-family homes would mean that, in terms of new construction, the housing would be relatively affordable.

The plan also does not propose any changes to the existing housing stock in the present residential areas surrounding the commercial district at the Church/Dodge intersection.

Aside from the streetscape changes, implementation of the rest of the plan would be dependent on proposals from private owners to redevelop the properties involved.

Farr Associates, the consulting firm developing a proposal for the area north of Church to Simpson along the Mayfair right-of-way, is scheduled to hold a community meeting on its proposal Oct. 25. Then both consultants will present their ideas to the City's Plan Commission Nov. 8.

City officials hope to have final City Council approval of the reports in time for the scheduled expiration of moratorium on building permits in the district in December.

See more about the presentation to the District 202 Board

PANDORA'S BOX

The City Council opened a Pandora's box by reducing the size of projects that are to be considered as Planned Developments.

Planned Development is a process whereby the developer asks for variations in the zoning requirements (more units, more height, less parking, etc.) in exchange for providing public benefits such as recreation areas, preservation of historic buildings, or building affordable units. The drawings documenting the changes become automatically binding.

Until recently only very large projects qualified for Planned Development. Two events led the Council to make it easier to apply Planned Development status. First, the City attorney told them that if appearance decisions alone are made binding, that might lead to lawsuits by developers against the City, lawsuits that are hard to defend; on the other hand, appearance commitments under Planned Development are automatically binding.

The second event was the admission that the townhouse project on the northeast corner of Chicago Avenue and South Boulevard that was built "by right" and follows the zoning laws to the letter is criminally dense. The neighborhood's - and thus the alderman's - insistence on not more than three stories, coupled with the exorbitant land price, made the developer build from the sidewalk to the alley with minimum distance between buildings.

The Council had two choices. The first was to change the Zoning Ordinance to require front yard setbacks along Chicago Avenue, to require rear yards along the alley, to increase the distances between buildings, etc., a time-consuming, difficult process.  The second was to reduce the size requirements for Planned Development, thus making practically all sizable projects subject to negotiation as well. In this way the City could control not only height and density but design as well, and could avoid potential litigation.

The City opted for this second choice. So far this process has not improved design quality. I am convinced this is the case because no City forum is qualified to render appearance decisions. The Site Planning and Appearance Committee has only one architect among its members, the Plan Commission has three and the City Council, consisting predominantly of lawyers, has none.

Actually, we seem to be in a worse position than before, because the time required for approval became considerably longer than in the past.

Also developers, who think only of their own interest, ask for more changes than are reasonable and are only willing to give minimal public benefits if that cuts into their bottom line. The negotiations drag on and on. The worst result is that developers are uniformly unwilling to provide affordable apartments and try to soothe their consciences by making a comparatively frugal donation to the City's affordable-housing fund instead.

There are two possible solutions.

We can rescind the ordinance that broadened the application of Planned Development and go back to following an updated zoning ordinance. Also we could institute a binding appearance review  by design professionals such as is done in Wilmette, Winnetka, Highland Park, Lake Forest and Park Ridge.

If we keep the current eased requirements for Planned Development, we should at least create an independent design advisory commission of architects to guide the City Council.  We should not ask aldermen to take on a responsibility for which they have limited training and which will be critical to our City for generations.

Arrest Made in Death of 4-Year-Old

Evanston Police have arrested Pierre Miller in conjunction with the death of 4-year-old Aaron Morales. Mr. Miller, who will be 20 next month, is the child's uncle and lived in the same apartment at 1836 Dodge Ave. He has been charged with unlawful use of a weapon by a felon, obstruction of justice and endangering the life of a child which resulted in the death of a child, according to a statement from Deputy Chief Joseph Bellino. Mr. Miller was also charged with violating the City's ordinance against possessing a handgun.

Police say they responded to a 911 call just after 6:30 a.m. on Oct.11 and found the child had been shot in the chest. He was taken to St. Francis Hospital for emergency surgery, and then transferred to Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago, where he died during surgery at about 4:45 p.m., according to the Evanston police.

Investigators from both Evanston police and the North Regional Major Crimes Task Force conducted interviews and found that about a week before the shooting, Mr. Miller had brought a 9 mm semiautomatic pistol into the home and hidden it in a bedroom.

"Where this incident takes a bad turn is that after the child was shot, Mr. Miller hid the weapon by tossing it into the attic," Deputy Chief Bellino told the RoundTable. "If that hadn't happened, we'd have had closure a whole lot sooner. Mr. Miller would not have been charged with obstruction of justice if he had not hidden the weapon, but he would still have faced the other charges," he added.

According to the police, although the shooting may have been accidental, the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office is "withholding a determination of means and method of the child's death" until other tests are complete and other evidence examined, because none of the adults in the home "indicated that they had witnessed the shooting." 

Bond relating to this incident was set for Mr. Miller at $250,000 at a hearing in the Skokie courthouse on Oct. 13. There was a separate charge for violation of probation.

Special sentencing provisions for endangering the life of the child with resulting death can allow for a maximum sentence of 10 years.

ComEd and the City

City Will Search for New Supplier of Electricity But Continue Franchise Negotiations for Distribution With ComEd

By Mary Helt Gavin

Like many other municipalities, the City of Evanston elected not to participate  in last month's electricity auction, which determined prices for electricity for the next few years. Instead, Evanston is creating its own path to power with a two-part electricity agenda: to procure electricity for City buildings and to increase the reliability of electric service to Evanston residents.

The City has hired BAI of St. Louis to find the City a good price for the electricity it uses, and a team of City officials and staff continues to negotiate with ComEd for more reliable distribution of electricity throughout Evanston (using ComEd's lines).

David Cook, assistant facilities manager for the City, said requests for proposals were sent to eight of the 16 suppliers who participated in the auction. These companies had expressed interest in supplying energy to the City buildings that generate revenue, he said.

 "The street lights and the water-pumping station use the most electricity," Mr. Cook said. He also said ComEd now supplies electricity, at no cost to the City, to City buildings that do not generate revenue, such as the libraries, the fire stations, the Civic Center and the police station.

The charge for that power appears as a small surcharge - about two cents per day - on the bills of residential consumers, he said. Mr. Cook said ComEd will continue to supply that "free," resident-subsidized electricity to the City through July 2007.

The franchise
For more than 40 years the City of Evanston has had a franchise agreement with ComEd - an original 35-year agreement plus several three-year extensions. Under the franchise, ComEd is able to provide electricity to its customers using the power lines it put on or under the City's rights-of-way, such as parkways. In exchange, the City paid no charge for electricity in its municipal buildings that do not generate revenues for the City - the Civic Center, the fire stations and the police station, for example.

Several years ago, as the franchise was set to expire, the City decided to extend it only in short increments and only if ComEd provided more reliable service, Alderman Edmund Moran, 6th Ward, told the RoundTable.

Data showed that blackouts were more common in Evanston in the 1990s than in many other areas served by ComEd. The City created a negotiating team to meet regularly with representatives of ComEd to improve service, said Mr. Cook.

The team has been working to increase the reliability of ComEd's service to Evanston consumers, he said, focusing on blackouts and capacity, said Mr. Cook.

 "Outages here have been reduced [during the course of this franchise extension]," said Mr. Cook, "and the carrying capacity has increased. Now we can look for other things when the franchise expires in July of next year."

Next steps
Ald. Moran said the City's negotiating team opted for short extensions to the franchise a few years ago when deregulation was on the horizon, "because we did not want to get locked into a 40-year term when we knew the situation would change. We wanted to position ourselves well when deregulation came."

He added, "Right now we're looking at specific commitment on a year-to-year basis that would upgrade reliability but keep the temporal limits fairly short. By keeping it short we can continue to focus on reliability - the duration and number of outages."

The Powers That Be: ComEd, the ICC, the Legislature and the Governor

Nearly a decade ago, the state legislature enacted the Illinois Electric Service Customer Choice and Rate Relief Law, which according to the Illinois Commerce Commission would "restructure the state's electric service industry to offer customers a choice and create a competitive marketplace."

The bookends of that law are a price freeze on electricity,
enacted 10 years ago and set to expire in January of 2007, and an auction, held late last month, to set the price of electricity for the next few years - whether in one jump or phased in.

Commonwealth Edison and the Ameren companies are the big suppliers in Illinois, although several smaller suppliers won the right to provide electricity in the state. ComEd, which provides electricity to most of Northern Illinois, has said its rate increase will be 22 percent. Ameren, which provides most of the electricity downstate, will increase its rates more than 40 percent. ComEd says it needs the rate increase to remain financially solvent, even though its parent company, Excelon, has seen extraordinary profits in the past few years.

Even before the auction the State Attorney General and the Citizens Utility Board filed a lawsuit challenging the auction and the rate hike, saying that competition in Illinois is too minimal to be meaningful. Since then, it has become a political football. Governor Rod Blagojevich has called for a special session of the legislature to consider House Bill 5766, which would extend the rate freeze for another three years.

Denser, Shorter Proposal for Central Street Theatres.

Neighbors will get a chance next month to say whether they think developers of Central Place Residences, proposed for the site of the shuttered Evanston Theaters, have succeeded in revising the condo project's design to meet their objections.

At a Plan Commission hearing Wednesday/Oct.11 the developers presented a new design that:

* Cuts the building from five stories to four and its height from 57 to 48 feet.
* Cuts the required parking spaces from 106 to 100 and provides all the parking on site.
* Increases the depth of first-floor storefronts from about 28 feet to about 40 feet.
* Redesigns the loading dock and parking area to reduce traffic in the alley behind the building.
* Redesigns the streetscape to increase the unobstructed sidewalk width.

To make room for the changes, the new design also lengthens the building to the full 300 feet of the property's frontage in the 1700-block of Central Street, eliminating plans to retain and rehabilitate a historic cottage at the west edge of the property.

Co-developer Bob Horn said the new design also provides greater setbacks from the street starting at the second floor level to respond to neighbors' concerns about "canyonization" of the street.

Because of a full agenda, the commissioners decided to postpone public comment on the proposal to the next Plan Commission meeting Nov. 8.

Several commissioners said they were impressed with how thoroughly the developers had responded to neighborhood criticism of the previous design, but they said the five story design was much more attractive.

"This project does not have a fraction of the elegance of the previous proposal," Commissioner Stuart Opdyche said.

"The one tonight is a step removed from a dormitory. The one we looked at a month ago is a real elegant piece of architecture," he added.

Co-developer Jack Crocker said there was no cheapening of the building in the new design. "It's the same materials and detailing," he said, "It's just a different building because it's built in a different mass. A longer four-story building is diffeernt than a narrower five story building."

Plan Commissioner Coleen Burrus said, "We prefer the other design."

"Me too," Mr. Crocker responded.

He added that the architectural team would continue to work on the design to refine it in hopes of having further revisions before the next Plan Commission meeting.