Mayor Biss discusses zoning policies and what could change Evanston

“All ideas are on the table,” Mayor Daniel Biss told students at Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management on Tuesday during a discussion about possible changes to zoning law in Evanston.

He spoke at a moderated event with Kellogg professor Therese McGuire at the Kellogg Global Hub. The event, hosted by the Business & Politics Club and Kellogg Real Estate Club, attracted approximately 30 students.

Mayor Biss answered questions from McGuire and students about what zoning policy is, how it can work sustainably, why these policies can be difficult to change and what changes lie ahead for Evanston.

“We are in the relatively early stages of what will be a year-long process we call Envision Evanston 2045, to revise both our comprehensive plan and our zoning code,” Biss said. “All ideas are on the table.”

Zoning policy can be far-reaching

“Zoning laws are invoked in conversations as diverse and important as trying to increase the number of affordable housing units, trying to improve sustainability and resilience to climate change, and trying to ensure a more inclusive, equitable society,” said McGuire in her introductory question.

Mayor Biss spoke about many of these consequences during the event.

Zoning policies can dictate everything from how tall a building can be to how many units and individuals can live on one site. Biss told the audience that these laws could limit housing supply by limiting the production of new housing, which could impact prices.

“The single most important policy challenge facing Evanston is affordability,” Biss said. “People want to be here. When homes come up for sale, there is often more demand than supply, which drives up costs.”

Mayor Biss also discussed how relaxing these zoning restrictions could impact sustainability.

“Every time you build another multi-unit building downtown, you make it possible for someone to live in an apartment near a train station without a car.”

Additionally, per-person costs for heating and cooling decrease in dense residential buildings, as opposed to single-family homes, Biss said.

Equity issues

In addition to affordability and sustainability, Biss pointed out the effects that zoning can have on equity.

“The kind of intense expansion of the scope of restrictions embedded in zoning laws that took place in the first half of the 20th century (in) America was deeply tied to the interest that municipalities had in enforcing segregation,” he said.

According to Biss, zoning decisions now have the ability to roll back these previous goals, but they haven’t changed that much.

Because zoning regulations affect issues that are close to people’s lives, from the pets people are allowed to have to the radius of their homes, Mayor Biss thinks this could cause understandable opposition.

“You have to respect change aversion,” Biss said. “If you want to change the zoning plan, you have to respect it, take it seriously and take into account the people for whom that change could be most meaningful.”

What change awaits Evanston

That of the city Imagine Evanston The project is currently just past the initial listening phase and is developing a vision for positive change in zoning policy.

“We do it with a deep, intense and genuine interest in bringing people to the table,” Biss said. “We are deeply, deeply invested in the diversity of these voices in all dimensions.”

Mayor Biss also told the audience that about a third of the space surrounding Evanston’s CTA and Metra stops is dedicated to single-family homes only. A student he worked with made this discovery by overlaying public transportation maps with zoning code maps around the city.

“We still have a lot of listening to do, but as a resident I think that needs to change,” Biss said.

Envision Evanston is still in its early stages and the current emphasis is on listening to Evanston residents, he said.

“I think one thing I would enthusiastically support is limiting the number of single people in Evanston,” Biss said.

He explained that in practice this would not really be an increase in regulations. To help the audience understand this, he used recent changes in Minneapolis as an example. In 2020 the The city has approved the construction of three-unit homes on every home, anywhere in the city.

Zoning policy can be far-reaching

Related Posts