Submitted by CSNA on Mon, 01/26/2026 - 12:46
The following information is a cross-posted e-mailing from Evanston Action Coalition, with minor edits for brevity and clarity; re-publication does not constitute endorsement by CSNA. For posts related to the Envision Evanston planning, please see our articles collection here.
City Council is scheduled to vote on Envision Evanston 2045 tonight, Monday, Jan. 26, 2026, at a meeting that begins 5:30 PM.
This comprehensive plan would guide zoning, development, and land-use decisions across Evanston for decades — yet it did not emerge from a transparent, resident-led planning process.
Submitted by CSNA on Wed, 01/21/2026 - 15:52
The following is from a press release from Most Livable City Association:
Submitted by CSNA on Wed, 01/21/2026 - 15:30
As you may have heard, the District 65 Board of Education voted to move ahead with a series of hearings, mandated by state law, to consider the closing of Kingsley School (in addition to the already-decided closure of Bessie Rhodes Elementary). All three hearings will be held over a two-day period, starting at 6pm tonight. All hearings are at the Joseph E. Hill Education Center (1500 McDaniel Avenue, Evanston). Additional details from the District can be found here.
Submitted by CSNA on Tue, 10/21/2025 - 10:42
Central Street Neighbors Association urges residents of Evanston-Skokie Elementary School District 65 to express their views about proposed school closings this Thursday evening, 7pm, Oct. 23, at a "listening session" at the former church at 2715 Hurd Avenue (where we held our mayoral candidate forum).
Submitted by jeffpsmith on Sun, 10/12/2025 - 12:08
The City of Evanston has issued a draft Housing Plan with a collection of "strategies" falling into three bundles: (1) Preserve existing affordable housing, (2) Create more housing, and (3) Protect residents against displacement.
Submitted by jeffpsmith on Sun, 10/12/2025 - 10:37
The City of Evanston has propounded a draft Housing Plan. You may wonder why. The City of Evanston, like most cities its size, is not in the business of constructing, selling, managing, or leasing housing as a municipal function. The housing is already built. Lots of it. By the private sector, since the 1840s.
Submitted by jeffpsmith on Sun, 09/14/2025 - 15:58
On Monday, Sept. 15, 2025, at 6 pm, the Evanston City Council will hold a hearing on the draft comprehensive plan for the City. In January, and again in April, I summarized for the Council about 20 of the major problems with previous drafts. I have reviewed the new draft against those issues, and most of them have not been fixed. I even cross-checked this with AI. You may download my tabulation of this at the bottom of this post; click to download.
This draft plan, while it has some commendable parts and a lot of soothing, aspirational language, is neither ready nor what Evanston deserves, and threatens Central Street planning.
Submitted by CSNA on Thu, 07/17/2025 - 09:35
A quick heads-up on two City meetings related to the ongoing planning effort which will impact many future plans as well as likely moves to change at least some Evanston zoning starting later this year:
Submitted by CSNA on Thu, 07/17/2025 - 09:21
Central Street Neighbors Association again entertained parade-goers on the 4th of July in Evanston with local musicians Holly and the Harrisons (Holly Shapiro (drums) and Matt Sobczyk (bass) of Rent Party as rhythm, plus Harrison Street residents Matt Storkman (lead vocals), Jeff Smith (guitar), and Bruce McBratney (keys)). CSNA thanks all the musicians and marchers and truck-decorators who donated their time for several hours each on a hot and extremely humid 2025 Independence Day.
An irony of parade music is that no spectator gets to hear a whole song! So here, for your enjoyment, is a video of the band performing Woody Guthrie's timeless populist ode to America, at the end of the 2-mile route, passing Mustard's and the reviewing stand.
Submitted by CSNA on Tue, 06/24/2025 - 12:56
Guest Essay by Steve Test and Paul Breslin
There is a national trend of urban planners loosening or removing zoning limits on height and density and to eliminate or reduce zoning for detached, single-family homes to allow building more multi-unit residential buildings, so called “missing middle” housing. Minneapolis, Austin, and Houston, as well as the states of Oregon and California, are among the jurisdictions that have enacted these policies. All of these jurisdictions are distinctly different from the much smaller, land-constrained, built-out city of Evanston. The cities' housing stock has a much higher percentage of detached, single-family homes: Minneapolis 45.3%, Austin 46.5%, Houston 46.6%. Evanston: 31.8%.
The first draft of the EE45 Comprehensive Plan called for elimination of single-family home zoning and allowing by-right building up to four-unit residential buildings on any R1/R2 lot. In fact, significant portions of the language in the first draft could have come straight from many of the rezoning projects in other parts of the country. Much of that language has been removed from subsequent drafts, but significant vestiges are still there. So let’s examine those vestiges and the ideology that spawned them.
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