Evanston’s Land Use Commission voiced strong opposition Wednesday night to a suggestion that billboards should be permitted as a special use under the city’s zoning code.
Ald. Tom Suffredin (6th) had made a referral last December requesting a change in the zoning code to allow billboards.
Responding to that request, city staff proposed adding a definition of billboards to the zoning code and permitting them as a special use in all zoning districts — so the City Council would become the final arbiter of whether a billboard could be added at a given location.
Staff also suggest the possibility of creating a licensing fee scheme for billboards, so they could generate revenue for the city.
Currently there are at least five billboards in Evanston, clustered along Green Bay Road between Simpson and Foster streets. They all apparently were first erected decades ago.
Land Use Commission Vice-Chair Jeanne Lindwall said the 2020 update to the city’s Comprehensive Plan in Chapter 13 set a policy goal to “eliminate billboard advertisements.”
“So creating a new regulation to allow billboards isn’t consistent with the comprehensive plan,” Lindwall said.
In addition, she said, all the city’s sign controls are aimed at reducing visual clutter while still allowing businesses to advertise their presence.
She also argued that the existing billboards on Green Bay Road create a hazard for drivers. “We don’t want to have distracted drivers reading billboards when they should be watching out for pedestrians,” she said.
Commissioner George Halik said billboards would change the character of city neighborhoods.
Commission Chair Matt Rodgers, who works in marketing said, “I’ve made more billboards than you’ve probably ever read, but I don’t think Evanston is a very appropriate place for them.”
“I can only imagine the outcry from Central Street” — a street that runs through Suffredin’s ward — “if a billboard was proposed there,” Rodgers said. “We’d have 1,000 people here clamoring against it.”
Commissioner Kiril Mirintchev said the city code should have a simple line that “billboards are not allowed in Evanston.”
The commissioners generally supported a package of other zoning code revisions proposed by staff, although they eliminated one proposed new standard for planned development approvals.
That change would have required a property owner to show “a hardship or practical difficulty” to win approval for development allowances.
They also called for rewording one other standard to emphasize climate and sustainability concerns in the planned development process.
I’m guessing people will be sending in other locations of billboards in Evanston. There’s definitely more than 5.
Another long-standing one is in the 1400 block of Chicago Ave. — on CTA tracks.
One problem with billboards is that they prevent maximum greenery & greenspace — e.g., along wildlife corridors like railroad tracks.
You mean the 1400 block of Sherman Avenue. Yep, there is one there by the CTA tracks. But it’s not on Chicago Avenue.
Yes, you’re correct — 1400 block of Sherman.
Thanks for catching that.
We at the 1415 Sherman are 100% against these billboards, that I bet no one pays attention to. I have had to look at the one at the corner of Sherman and Greenwood for 22yrs. Why can’t the village plant something like they did along the railroad tracks on Green Bay, up to the Wilmette boarderline? Who is profiting from these ads, the railroads?
I
No no no! Please ban the bill boards! Too many cities have forgotten about the things that make Evanston beautiful. There is a lot of building going on now and that is enough- to add to that bill board signs will destroy what is left of the dignity of our small city. It seems most small cities are now trampling on the souls of their once precious cities.