SEA monitors proposals for land use that will have a significant impact on the City and on the people adjoining proposed projects.. Our focus is on large issues such as Planned Developments, requested major variances, and proposed developments that affect parks and the lakeshore.
 
When a major proposal for land requests zoning variances, SEA will try to clarify their pros and cons and what the contested issues are. Articles in this section will point to relevant zoning provisions.

Click Here to review the SEA Annual Meeting Presentation from Assistant City Engineer Chris Sous on the Chicago Avenue Multimodal Corridor Improvement Plan- October 28,2025

September 28, 2025 -Opposition to 605 Davis Street Planned Development

To: Evanston City Council

Re: Opposition to 605 Davis Street Planned Development

Dear Mayor and Councilmembers,

The Southeast Evanston Association respectfully urges the City Council to uphold the recommendation of the Land Use Commission and deny the proposed 605 Davis Street planned development in its current form. The Commission’s review was thorough, and its findings reflect the concerns of residents across Evanston who value fiscal responsibility, consistent zoning, and livable neighborhoods.

Our members are deeply concerned about the financial implications of this project, specifically the tax breaks the developers are reaping because of the 20% affordability allocation. Both the City and our public schools, District 65 and District 202, face significant fiscal challenges. District 65, for example, is in the midst of a deficit reduction plan that requires difficult cuts to programs and services, along with the closure of several top-performing neighborhood elementary schools. Approving a development of this scale that shifts additional tax burdens onto existing residents, is unacceptable. Southeast Evanston residents already shoulder some of the highest effective property tax burdens in the city, and any shortfall in projected revenue from this project would fall disproportionately on them and other taxpayers. We are equally troubled by the extent of the variances being requested. Evanston’s zoning code is designed to ensure predictability and fairness for residents, businesses, and institutions alike. Granting allowances of this magnitude—in building height, density, and parking—undermines the integrity of the code and sets a precedent that will weaken the City’s ability to manage future development responsibly. With the Envision Evanston Comprehensive Plan still being finalized, now is not the time to permit extraordinary exceptions that risk outpacing our planning framework by setting dangerous zoning and fiscal precedents.

Finally, this project would exacerbate real, existing issues in our neighborhoods. The sharply reduced on-site parking proposed—roughly eighty spaces for more than four hundred residential units— virtually guarantees spillover into already crowded streets. Southeast Evanston residents contend daily with limited overnight parking, and this development would add significant new pressures that our neighborhoods are ill-equipped to absorb. The reliance on leased spaces in municipal garages does not address these already experienced impacts and places additional operational burdens on the City.

For all of these reasons, we respectfully ask the City Council to follow the considered judgment of the Land Use Commission and deny the 605 Davis Street proposal. The Southeast Evanston Association supports reinvestment in downtown Evanston, but only when projects are fiscally sound for all parties and consistent with adopted plans and codes, and respectful of the neighborhoods that surround them.

Sincerely,

Southeast Evanston Association

cc: SEA Membership