Ryan Field proposals may require multiple Land Use meetings

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The highly anticipated Land Use Commission hearing on Northwestern University’s proposals to rebuild and rezone Ryan Field will likely require multiple meetings, according to Evanston Planning Manager Liz Williams.

Williams spoke at Tuesday night’s Seventh Ward meeting at the Morton Civic Center, explaining how the Land Use Commission’s hearing will work and answering questions from attendees. She said staff and commissioners are expecting a “very large turnout” for the commission’s first meeting Sept. 6 to hear testimony on the Ryan Field proposals.

“We may not even get through public comments on September 6,” Williams said. “There is that possibility that the hearing will be continued just to allow the opportunity for everyone to have the chance to speak about the project.”

The commission makes recommendations to the City Council on major developments and zoning amendments and is the first official stop on the Ryan Field proposals’ road to approval or disapproval. Since commissioners’ votes are only advisory, both proposals will proceed to the council’s Planning and Development Committee, regardless of which way the commission votes.

Williams outlined how the hearing will be ordered and structured. It will include Northwestern’s presentation, commissioners’ questions, public presentations and comments, continuances and opposing testimony from nearby property owners and cross-examination.

Final decisions on time limits and procedure are at the discretion of the commission and its chair, Matt Rodgers, rather than city staff, she said.

“As staff, we have absolutely no decision-making authority as it comes to the operations of the Land Use Commission,” Williams said. “They’ve been appointed by the mayor, and they’re the ones asked to provide recommendations to the City Council.”

Williams said it is “potentially likely” that the hearing could take three meetings “at a minimum,” due in part to continuance requests. Under state and city law, property owners within 1,000 feet of Ryan Field are guaranteed the right to provide opposing testimony at a later continued meeting on request, either as individuals or as groups. Williams said two groups have already submitted formal continuance requests for the project.

After opposing testimony concludes, Northwestern and all continuance requesters will be free to cross-examine each other’s testimony. Once that ends, Northwestern can provide a closing statement and rebuttal, and commissioners will proceed to deliberation and final votes.

Also coming soon is the city’s independent economic impact study, according to Seventh Ward Council Member Eleanor Revelle. Answering a question from the crowd, Revelle said a draft of the report should available “any day now” and the final report is scheduled to arrive in mid-September. She added that it “took a long time” for Northwestern to provide the city’s consultant with necessary data to complete its analysis.

She added that, while the final report will be available after the Land Use Commission begins its hearing, considering economic impact is more in City Council’s domain than the commission’s.

“My reading of the standards that the Land Use Commission uses to evaluate the proposals, [they] don’t really focus on the economic impact or economic benefits,” Revelle said. “That’s certainly something the City Council is going to want to look at closely.”

The RoundTable plans to publish a story on Tuesday, Sept. 5, explaining how the Land Use Commission hearing will be structured, as well as the proposals’ timeline beyond the commission.

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Alex Harrison reports on local government, public safety, developments, town-gown relations and more for the RoundTable. He graduated from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism in June... More by Alex Harrison