New Tax on Central Street?

If you own property or a business on Central Street between roughly Ashland and Marcy ... or on Green Bay north of Lincoln ... you may want to attend one of these two meetings.  The first meeting is this Tuesday night April 30 at 7:00 p.m.(details below).

A proposal to create a Special Service Area (SSA) on Central Street will be discussed. Per the proposed map above the area under consideration includes many residences on Central outside the east and west business zones. It appears that any new taxes proposed to support the proposed SSA will apply to all properties within the SSA ... including businesses and residences.



From the Central Street Master Plan:

A Special Service Area (SSA) is a state-authorized financing program that can be administered by the City that provides financing resources for a specific area. Special tax assessments are paid by the property owners in a designated area. An SSA is initiated by property and business owners wanting certain services above those already provided by the City, or other services not provided such as advertising, marketing, parking, loan programs, capital improvements, and maintenance, including snow removal along sidewalks.A group of contiguous property owners vote to form an SSA, which consists of all properties that would benefit from the services, and elect to levy an additional property tax to pay for the services. If approved by the City Council, the tax would be levied and distributed to the SSA on an annual basis.

An SSA Commission is formed with representatives of business and property owners to administer the services. The Commission, along with the City, would hold public meetings to discuss the benefits of the SSA with the community. The entire process to establish an SSA can take between 6 and 12 months. An SSA may be a useful implementation tool for improving, managing, and maintaining the commercial blocks along Central Street.


Evanston has two existing Special Service Areas that also appear to include residential properties: SSA #4 Downtown and SSA #6 Dempster/Main. The Levy for 2018 proposed for these areas was $535,714 and $225,510 respectively.  The 2017 tax rate applied to Equalized Assessed Valuation was 0.126% and 0.235% respectively.

The city has contracted with Teska Associates for consulting services regarding creation of the Central Street SSA.

The meeting announcement flyer published by the group supporting the creation of an SSA has the following meeting details:

  • Tuesday April 30, 2019 7:00 to 8:30 p.m. Backlot Coffee 2006 Central
  • Tuesday June 4, 2019 7:00 to 8:30 p.m. Old Neighborhood Grill 2902 Central

More information is available at: https://centralstreetevanston.org/ .... (not affiliated with CSNA)