From the Daily Northwestern, I'm Mikaela. This is Everything Evanston, a podcast about the people, business, and going on in Evanston, Illinois. Today, we're doing a recap of the February 27th City Council meeting. Then we'll take a look at one of this week's leading stories in Evanston.
This week, over 45 people signed up for public comment. Many signed up to speak to City Council about the upcoming vote to approve a contract for Evanston Animal Shelter Construction. Discussion centered on the high cost prediction that City staff presented for the council. Here's Evanston Animal Hospital owner, Dr.
Gail Henry, who supports the approval of the proposed plan. I've also been in the current facilities on the number of occasions. I can tell you firsthand that the current building is just not sustainable, and that's coming from a health standpoint for the pets that are in their care that likely is creating a lot of trust and can be determined for their health. The contract was for a little over $6.8 million, and would be funded by a combination of general obligation bonds, the Cook County Animal Shelter grant program, the Evanston Animal Shelter Association, and the City of Evanston General Fund.
The contract was $1.5 million over budget. Evanston resident Mike Vasilco had some hesitancy about the plan. There's consensus on it that there needs to be a new shelter, but we have to be fiscally responsible for it. The shelter as is proposed.
8th Ward Alderman, Devon Reed, spoke in favor of the shelter, and pointed out that the higher price tag is likely due to the higher cost of making the building lead certified, meaning the building meets certain standards for sustainability. It's very clear that the sentiment in our community is that we need to make this investment. It's a value statement. I think making sure that we're keeping up with our environmental goals and putting the dollar and all that we need to get to the lease certification is important.
1st Ward Alderman, Claire Kelly, expressed concerns about the project's scope, citing the $8 million total project cost that was presented to the council. Well, the Animal Shelter, the people that work there, everything about it, can't support an $8 million project for the Animal Shelter. I think a lot of it's about the scope of it, which we didn't. We talked about it.
We never voted about the scope of the project. I don't know what's going on there. Despite the opposition, the motion passed with a vote of 8 to 1. Another special item up for approval was Ordinance 4-0-23, which would change licensing agreements for shared housing in Evanston.
4th Ward Alderman, Jonathan Newsman, explained how the bill was inspired by the Margarita Inn, a homeless shelter run by connections for the homeless. The ordinance includes stricter zoning standards and provides clear clarification on how to properly regulate side standards. Originally, my thought was we need to do a license for facility like Margarita Inn. As things have evolved, staff has rightly pointed out that, you know what, Margarita Inn is only one type of shared housing, and we have all these other types of shared housing which are not really adequately regulated by our current code.
It's a highly flexible approach that allows us to finely tune the regulations to any number of different types of shared housing. 1st Ward Alderman, Claire Kelly cited concerns about the novelty of the legislation. Interim Community Development Director Sarah Flax explained the goals of the legislation further. We haven't found one that works exactly like this, but we also haven't found one that works exactly like the one we already have.
Right now, we have hotels, rooming houses, all these different things categorized under one license, and so it's been discussed what we're really doing is providing greater ways of distinguishing among them and making sure that they are appropriately regulated. The motion passed with a vote of 8 to 1. Another item that was voted on was an amendment to city code that would allow roosters on school grounds for educational purposes. Put forward by 2nd Ward Alderman, Chrissy Harris.
Evanston Township High School teacher Ellen Fier stood up at public comment to explain. Our program is based on hands-on experiences so that our students can learn what it's like to grow your own food and have food sovereignty and they may have their own flock and it's good for them to understand how rooster plays into that role of having to save healthy flock events. The rooster in question named Tyrone received votes of confidence from public commenters and council members alike. In order, here are public commenters, Vicki Passenko, Dr.
Gail Henry, Dr. Lutuber, Mike Myers, Jill Greer, Diane Valletta, and Mayor Daniel Biss. Can I have two seconds to say, I think they need a rooster. I go up on a bar.
I'm also a supporter of the rooster. I think it's a very hard job. I feel it. I also support rooster.
The council also discussed options for constructing American for Disabilities Act or ADA access to the dog beach. The rooster? Don't bring him to the dog beach. I grow up in actions and I grow rooster.
Who does the rooster? Who says we can't all agree? 8th Ward Alderman, Devon Reed, and 4th Ward Alderman, Jonathan Newsman also expressed their support. This is larger than just allowing a rooster to be an ETS.
This is really about changing the way that we use resources, allowing a rooster at ETS is really a part of a much larger picture, really will provide wider reaching benefits. So often, the city of Evanston is the body of capital, don't. So tonight, I'm looking forward to being the body of capital. The motion passed with a vote of 9-0.
5th Ward Alderman, Bobby Burns had a creative way of ascending. Council member Burns? Capital to the Lou. Make sure to tune in for the next City Council meeting.
Up next, Lili shines its down with Assistant City Editor, William Tong. Talk about his most recent article on Ryan Field. Hi, I'm Lili Shen. And today we're going to be talking about William Tong's story on the Ryan Field Project.
Ryan Field has been at the front of the minds of Evanston community members ever since Northwestern University announced plans for the $800 million renovation in September. William's story covers Evanston's efforts to conduct an independent study on the impacts the renovation will have on the Evanston community. What is important to note is that the community is a little hesitant about Northwestern's Ryan Field rebuild project. In Black community, I'm mostly referring to Evanston residents, city leaders, city organizers.
And they have a couple of reasons for that. Namely, the university released two studies on the rebuild Ryan Field website that it had commissioned to sort of detail the economic impacts of this project, as well as the public support it was receiving. Consulting group Trip Unback published and used economic impact study in November 2022. They found that the rebuilds of Ryan Field would generate about 2,900 new jobs, $660 million in economic impact, and $12.5 million in taxes for Evanston.
But according to Tong, some Evanston residents find the results vague, especially details about the proposed profit. We're not sure what percentage goes to Northwestern University directly, what percentage goes to local businesses, what proportion goes to maybe like chain businesses and franchises, as well as what percentage would go to Northwestern's contracted services. So they do contract food retailers, beverage retailers at Ryan Field. And so that would have a different kind of economic impact compared to say if the money goes to local business.
The second study was a public opinion survey by Impact Research, finding that out of a sample size of 500 Evanston voters, about 56% support the Ryan Field rebuild, while only 29% oppose it. Some Evanston residents, as well as 7th Ward Council member Eleanor Ravel, expressed doubts about the methodology and results of this survey. Given these two studies, Northwestern is saying, look, we have the evidence to say this is going to be beneficial for the community, community members, maybe not all of them. But a sizable portion are saying we have a lot of concerns.
In addition to the dissatisfaction with the extent and specificity of the findings, Tong says some Evanston residents and city council members are also skeptical of the studies because they were both sponsored by the university. As a result, the city has commissioned an independent study. What the city has commissioned is an economic impact study. It is going to analyze Northwestern's study.
First of all, that is one of its goals. Another goal is to perform some economic analysis on its own. Additionally, there are council members that are residents who want other kinds of impact information. So not just the monetary value of economic impacts, but also the environmental impact.
This is a very large construction project. It does involve a lot of tearing down and rebuilding. So there are questions about what happens with the waste, what happens to air quality, what happens in terms of dealing with the debris from the old stadium. This independent study may benefit the university, which needs to meet a couple of requirements with the city in order to get started with renovations.
Northwestern Vice President for Communications John Yates did say without those three entitlements, without the special use permit, without the zoning amendment, without the liquor license, Northwestern is not planning to go ahead with the project. All things considered, this project will have massive effects on the community. William says the daily will continue covering this topic. For other people who might be picking up a print paper and reading about Ryan Fields, who might be going on our website and reading about it, who might be listening to this podcast and hearing about it, it's a hot button issue and it's not just about football and concerts.
It can also affect people's quality of life, especially if they live next to the stadium. And I think that's an important thing to care about. We are guests here, after all. So it's important to respect, I think, and at least hear out what other people have to say about what the university is wanting to do.
Absolutely. Thanks for talking with me today, William. That's all for this week's City Story. From the Daily Northwestern, I'm Mika Ellis.
And I'm Lillie Shen. Thanks for listening to another episode of Everything Evanston's Rapid Recap. This episode was reported and produced by myself and Mika Ellis. William Tong contributed reporting.
The audio editor of the Daily Northwestern is Eric Ashmitt. The digital managing editors are Joanne Hayner and Olu Tungi Osho Williams. And the editor-in-chief is Alex Perry. Make sure to subscribe to the Daily Northwestern's podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcast, or SoundCloud to hear more episodes like this.