Members of the Environment Board and one of its subcommittees, the Evanston’s Climate Action and Resilience Plan (CARP) Implementation Task Force, spent two hours Wednesday reviewing their suggestions for changes to the second iteration of Envision Evanston 2045, the compressive plan proposal.
The Land Use Commission, which is reviewing the comprehensive plan, previously asked several boards, commissions and committees gave them until April 4
Members of both bodies previously agreed to submit their ideas to Environment Board co-chair Matt Cotter, who also sits on the task force, so that he could compile them in a single document.
Unlike with the first draft, where they gave suggestions, they agreed to do more of a line-by-line edit this time. The CARP Implementation Task Force usually meets on the first Wednesday of the month, which fell on April 2 this month, so members of both bodies decided to make it a joint meeting to review what Cotter compiled and make any last-minute changes they might need.
The discussion centered around the chapters dealing with environmental policy and housing, but the group also made some changes in chapters dealing with transportation, public health and economic development.
Environment al policies The joint board first tackled Chapter 8, which focused on environmental policies, first. One major concern that quickly arose was that it didn’t explicitly mention climate change. The group ended up adding a second introductory paragraph and a new subsection to address that.
Most notably, the joint board ended up adding two new subsections under policy recommendations. setting “Improv[ing] and integrat[ing] environmental accountability” and “ensuring] that Evanston achieves community-wide carbon neutrality by 2050 and prioritizes works to mitigate the adverse impacts of climate change” as two major priorities. The former would require Evanston to:
“devise programs to regularly evaluate and report on environmental progress to the community,”
“Adopt quantifiable, trackable, and enforceable goals, plans and actions when addressing climate change and sustainability, mirroring or exceeding those contain [in the Evanston Climate Action and Resilience Plan].”
“Establish procedures across city departments to ensure that sustainability and environmental impact are considered in all city decisions, initiatives, developments, permits, and contracts.”
For the latter, the joint board added language requiring the city to update and fully implement CARP, “including CARP’s current goals of carbon neutrality by 2050, zero waste by 2050 and 100% renewable electricity used by the City by 2030.” It also added language calling for the city to promote building decarbonization through a combination of incentives and regulations, making sure reduction of greenhouses gases is part of all city policies and decisions, including permitting and zoning decisions.
Under the goal of expanding the city’s tree canopy, it added the passage about “support[ing] the role of natural area stewards in managing, improving, and expanding the urban forest in park and preserve areas.”
Housing polices Chapter 9, which dealt with housing polices, was discussed next, with language around making homes energy-efficient and environmentally sustainable. James Cahan, who sits on both the Environment Board and the task force, reiterated a concern that he voiced throughout the planning process — that requiring buildings to adopt those measures would create a cudgel opponents can use against the city, creating evidence the city may stifle development.
Environment Board member Olin Wilson-Thomas responded that he felt that such people would object to the comprehensive plan whether it’s framed as a requirement or a suggestion.
“They’re going to say [that it goes too far no matter what,” he said.
“But we shouldn’t add fuel to the fire,” Cahan countered.
After some discussion, the joint board agreed to keep the “required” language in and add a goal of ” Prioritize and expand programs that retrofit existing housing to be more energy-efficient in an equity-focused manner, such as the Green Homes Project.”
At the CARP Task Force Jeri Garl’s suggestions, the joint board added “and homeowners” to the goal of developing a policy that would help renters, especially low-income ones, stay in their homes.
“Anecdotal information says [single-family homes] is the majority,” she said.
Other chapters For the transportation chapter, the board added the language calling for expansion of public electric vehicle charging stations, “particularly near multifamily buildings which mostly lack charging facilities today,” to help make owning electric vehicles more practical. After some discussion, they added the language asking the city to update its bike plan and collect the data on cycling travel patterns to better justify any changes.
In Chapter 5, which dealt with neighborhood development, the joint board added a line recommending that the city “allow pockets of retail areas in every neighborhood to ensure all residents have essential services within walking distance.”
In Chapter 11, which dealt with health issues, the joint board recommended adding a section outlining the health disparities between various parts of Evanston.
“If we don’t distinguish the areas that underserved or disinvested, we can’t plan effective solutions for them,” Garl said.
For the economic development section, the joint board agreed to recommend adding the language from the Circulatory Roadmap
One unexpected issue that came up was in line in the introduction about Evanston supporting “revitalization of brownfield sites.” CARP Implementation Task Force chair and Environment Board member Katarina Topalov said that she looked at the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency
Deputy city manager Steve Ruger responded that, “in this context, we’re talking about old industrial buildings that will get redeveloped.” He explained that, until somebody decides to redevelop the property and conduct an environmental study, the city has no idea what kind of environmental issues it may have.
The joint board ended up removing that passage.
The April 2 meeting marked the first time either body met in the new city hall at 909 Davis St. Since the new space doesn’t have nearly as many meeting rooms as the previous city hall, they are working on alternate locations. Environment Board’s April 10 meeting will be held at Evanston’s main library,1703 Orrington Ave., at 6:30 p.m.
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