Here’s a recap of our live coverage of Monday night’s Evanston City Council Planning and Development Committee meeting.
The meeting is scheduled to start at 6 p.m.
A packet with information on the agenda items is available online.
Meeting called to order at 6:06 p.m. Ald. Clare Kelly (1st) chairs.
Minutes approved
Public Comment
Sue Loellbach of Connections for the Homeless speaks in favor of lodging establishments ordinance.
Item for Consideration
P1 – Vacation rental license for 600 Monroe, Unit 1W
Ald. Juan Geracaris (9th) says he’s spoken to EPD, told doesn’t seem to have been any problems recently. Says asked property standards about whether it was a neglected property, told it was not.
Says is concerned about affordable housing — says city doesn’t really understand how vacation rental licensing is affecting rental housing pricing — but on balance favors approving the license tonight.
Kelly says wants discussion about vacation rentals, pricing, spacing, etc., wants new zoning restrictions on them.
Vacation rental license approved.
Discussion item
D1 – Lodging establishments city code amendments
Reid says thought people wanted discussion, but doesn’t seem there’s any public interest.
Kelly says she thinks the item needs a lot more discussion. Says it’s being rushed through to aid the Margarita Inn. Says should have standards for various different uses — calls it grossly inadequate. Says not proceeding in a responsible way on the issue. Says it shouldn’t be treated as a special order of business at tonight’s City Council meeting.
Sarah Flax, interim community development director, says each operator would develop a proposed operating agreement that would be approved by the City Council. Say most would be for existing dormitories. Says now much less flexibility in the code. Believes the staff does have the bandwidth to handle the number of new proposals that would be likely to be submitted.
Flax says there are about 82 such facilities in the city now, 70 of them are dormitories. Says there are very few new ones in a given years.
Nieuwsma says he made the referral to initiate this process last May.
Meeting adjourned at 6:39 p.m.
City Council meeting to start at 6:45 p.m.