By Bob Seidenberg

Members of the city’s Climate Action Resilience Plan task force don’t believe environmental concerns should be  limited to one area of the new Comprehensive General Plan —  a preliminary draft of which is to due to go to the council in a few weeks.

Instead “of having the environment as just a small subsection of the comprehensive plan, it should actually be  a guiding principal for each section of the comprehensive plan,” said  Katarina Topalov, chair of the committee, speaking at the group’s June 5 meeting.

While, “it doesn’t have to be more important than anything else, it has to be an important as affordable housing,” insisted Paula Scholl, another member, naming one of the areas likely to get attention in the report.

The task force members were responding to notice that a preliminary draft of the Comprehensive General Plan is to be presented  at the Evanston City Council’s June  24 meeting.

A plan for the future

The plan is as well as the zoning code are being g revised under a nearly year-long initiative, Evanston Endeavor 2045.

The city’s general comprehensive plan includes both a statement of community values and a list of recommendations  for interpreting those values into future land use and capital improvement decisions.

It covers a wide range of city activities, including land use, public faciliities, streets and traffic management, the parking system, bicycling and pedestrians, historic preservation and the arts as well as the environment.

The 2000 comprehensive plan included the environment as one of the areas for change.

 But the topic appeared  last in the 164-page report, parked behind a section on the Arts, and came with a rather big disclaimer.

“Establishment and enforcement of environmental standards occur within a policy framework that falls outside the purview of the Comprehensive General Plan,” the report stated. “However, as a guide for land development and improving infrastructure and circulation systems, the plan can broadly address how land use and development should be sensitive to concerns about environmental sustainability. 

2018 CARP plan brought city to new level

In 2018, environmental activists were successful in winning passage of the city’s Community Action Resilience Plan.

The precedent-setting plan lays out in detail the steps the city needs to take to reach carbon neutrality by 2050.

At the city’s Climate Action Resilience Plan Implementation Task Force meeting June 5, members made clear they saw environment concerns as a central part of a new report.

Topalov expressed hope the draft report also contains recommendations “for mitigation and adaptation,” of concerns as well as tracking results.

In discussion, members were able to find examples in just about every area of the plan where enviromentment criteria could be applied.

A lens to be looked through

In the neighborhood section, it could be the inequities in tree canopies in certain residential areas; in new housing, electrification and efficiency. Commercial and industrial corridors — “that gets into waste control,” said Scholl,  leading the exercise. In streets and traffic management, “that’s another super obvious way of improving bike ability and walkability,” she said. “Also, that’s where we get into parking minimums (ensuring new developments include a set number of off-street parking spots) and all that kind of stuff.”

The environment section, then, could be “for every thing else that doesn’t fit into all those things,” she said.

“That was great,” said Hank Neuberger, another member, reacting to Scholl’s list. “Now we have to convince the authors (of the comprehensive plan) to do just that. If we have a consensus we need to make sure that…instead of the environment being a section we want it to be a lens that every section looks through.”

The group is planning to draft letter of response, following the presentation at the June 24 council meeting, summing up its response.

The letter would be submitted to the Environment Board, which created the task force, at the board’s July 11 meeting.

A first version that will be refined

Contacted Friday, Evanston’s Planning Manager Elizabeth Williams, whose department has been working with the consultant, HDR, on the Evanston Endeavor 2045 planning initiative, suggested that the process is open to that kind of input.

“That’s exactly what we’re looking for in terms of feedback,” she said. “This (staff’s presentation to the council June 24) is just a preliminary draft of that report. It’s important to note that the final version of existing conditions will be included in the Comprehensive General Plan that comes out later this year, with all the accompanying goals and strategies. So this is a first version of that document  that will be refined based on additional community input that we receive after it’s been released.”

Officials were clearly excited about the enthusiastic response the process has received so far. Community members attended ward and other meetings, eagerly participating in the interactive process, which included filling out sticky notes with likes, dislikes and comments on what they would like to see in the plan.

The process included six in-person sessions, an online survey, over 40 “meeting in a box” sessions, held through community members, facilitating the conversations. 

Participation ran  close to 3%, of the city’s total population, Williams noted, exceeding the 1 to 2% turnout for comprehensive planning processes nationally, according to the American Planning Association.

“With what we’ve heard from already, there’s been a lot of support,” said Williams. Through Evanston’s Cradle to Career, a community organization which seeks to mobilize community assets for families to thrive, “we worked quite a bit with their advocates and they were able to help increase the reach of engagement here in the communities significantly,”  she added, “and we’re just really, really grateful for that partnership.”

“You know, I just really can’t impress upon you how much we appreciate the community providing feeding and (giving) their perspectives,” she said. “Ultimately, this process will be way more successful with their participation and we’re hopeful that the outcomes then reflect the perspectives of community members.”

Officials anticipate presenting the “existing conditions report,” summing up the wealth of comments they received at community meetings, in a report to the city council June 24.

Following the meeting, likely during the month of July, staff plans to present their findings to standing boards, commissions and committees throughout the city, Williams said.

Currently plans call for a draft plan to be ready by October, Williams said.

Officials will then seek further community feedback before heading first to the city’s Land Use Commission and