Evanston commission corrects error after preventing citizens from speaking on controversial project
Commission officials acknowledged their error at the meeting, saying they had misinterpreted two conflicting government codes. They rescheduled the hearing for Aug. 27.
The building has been controversial because in addition to its proposed 31 stories and 331 feet in height, some have spoken about density, parking and potential wind issues at its proposed site in downtown Evanston at 605 Davis St. The proposal calls for 430 apartment units and 80 on-site parking spaces, with an agreement proposed for 120 more at a city-owned garage.
Some residents have spoken in favor of the site as well, pointing out that the 605 Davis Street site has been vacant for decades, and that the development would provide 86 affordable units, higher than the city's 15% mandated inclusionary housing ordinance requires. Downtown business owners have also supported it for its increased foot traffic and population that could bring in more customers to their stores.
Conversations on densifying Evanston, which has a mix of apartment buildings and single-family homes, have been largely divisive. The City Council is also in the process of mulling Envision Evanston 2025, the city's 20-year comprehensive plan which would likely increase density significantly.
Per the city's Land Use Commission rules, residents who own property within 1,000 feet of a proposed development can ask for a continuance, or a delay, when it reaches the commission to air their concerns regarding a proposed development. At a continuance, a resident can challenge claims made by a developer, and can present evidence and call on experts to help make their case.
At a previous Land Use Commission meeting in July, the commission's chair, Jeanne Lindwall, and city staff said they confused conflicting language in the city's zoning code and Land Use Commission. The commission granted a continuance for five residents who opposed the proposed building to speak at the Wednesday hearing, but mistakenly rejected six other residents from speaking at that hearing, Lindwall said at Wednesday's meeting.
'I'd like to apologize both to the applicant and to the members of the public for the situation, but I believe it's important that we rectify this error as expeditiously as possible,' Lindwall said.
Some residents also spoke against the project at the July meeting, but only people who own property within 1,000 feet of 605 Davis St. and submitted a request for a proposal in writing to the commission will be allotted time to speak at the continued August meeting. Residents can also make public comment at that meeting.
The city contacted the six residents on Monday, explaining their mistake and offering them a chance to speak. In order to give them time to prepare for the hearing, and to also allow the full commission to be present at the hearing, Wednesday's hearing was continued to Aug. 27.
'I believe this request makes a lot of sense, both in terms of the continuity of the proceeding and the fact that two of the LUC commissioners who were present on July 23 were unable to attend this evening; I believe staff is also supportive of this request,' Lindwall said.
Residents who were granted a continuance will have up to five minutes to present their testimony and evidence at the Aug. 27 hearing, Lindwall said. Residents who bring in an expert will have an additional five minutes to hear from the expert. The developer, and experts they wish to invite, will have an opportunity to cross examine the resident's expert after each testimony, and is also allowed a 20 minute closing statement or rebuttal after all residents have testified.
Residents who are not able to attend the Aug. 27 hearing can submit their testimony and expert analysis in writing, Lindwall said. After all the testimonies have been heard, the Land Use Commission is expected to deliberate and make a decision on the 605 Davis St. proposal, she said.
'I'd also like to remind the members of the public that it is inappropriate to contact Land Use Commissioners individually regarding this or any other case. We do our deliberations in public and hear testimony, and so please respect our role and the position we're in by not trying to reach out and discuss any case with us individually,' Lindwall said.
Once the Land Use Commission gives a recommendation on the proposal, the plans will then head to the city's Planning and Development Commission, made up of six members of the City Council. In order for the development to advance to the full City Council, it will need at least a tie or a simple majority vote from that commission. The development would then need to win a simple majority of votes from the city council.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
New York Post
2 hours ago
- New York Post
Mayor Eric Adams deserves credit for his stunning housing wins
It's odd how little credit Mayor Eric Adams gets for his relentless, steady and successful drive to get more housing, including more affordable homes, built in New York City. In under four years, he's arguably done more than his predecessors achieved in the previous two decades, winning changes that will make a huge difference in the long term rather than offering empty promises of instant miracles. The latest: The City Council just OK'd Adams' plan to rezone Midtown South, opening the door for nearly 10,000 new housing units, 2,800 of them affordable, in an area that was largely zoned for (outdated) industrial uses. Advertisement Some of those units will come from converting commercial space to residential, an obvious next step for older, vacant office buildings. All told, Adams' rezoning push starting in 2021 has cleared the way for 100,000 new units to be built across the city, with 30,000 more on the way if the City Council approves his plans for Jamaica and Long Island City. Advertisement That's more housing gained via zoning changes than added in the Bloomberg and de Blasio years combined. Another unheralded gain, from years of steady effort and deft alliances: getting the Legislature to lift the floor-area-ratio cap of 12, which arbitrarily restricted the height of residential buildings. Between the mayor's massive City of Yes package, which the council approved last year, and other efforts, including the preservation of about 134,700 existing units, City Hall counts the number of units added to or kept in the Big Apple's housing supply under Adams at about 426,000. Yes, that includes the totals from proposals that still need to go through the approval process — and a good chunk, like those enabled through rezoning, won't be fully realized for years. Advertisement It doesn't help when lefty ideologues sabotage projects like the Brooklyn Marine Terminal, which would offer 6,000 new units, because they'd rather have no new housing than let any market-rate apartments get built on public land. But the mayor's full-court press means he's already changed the city's long-term housing landscape for the better even if some plans fall through — and he could do even more in a second term. We know: 'Methodical' doesn't match the Adams' image, but perhaps that's because so little of the local media pays attention to day-in-day-out reality; it's so much easier to fawn over, say, Zohran Mamdani's flashy promises to freeze rents. Advertisement Even though the mayor's strategy, unlike Mamdani's, works. Freezing rent on rent-regulated apartments would force more landlords to abandon their buildings altogether or allow units to fall into disrepair, making the city's housing situation worse. Meanwhile, Adams is dramatically boosting supply, which will organically push rents lower over time. In a city where hysterically anti-development progressives constantly do their best to thwart common-sense housing fixes, Adams' success in ushering in lasting change is stunning. And though the fruits of his labor will take time to fully appear, generations of New Yorkers will benefit. As the mayoral race exits the summer 'silly season,' perhaps voters will start to realize who's actually delivering the housing solutions New York needs.
Yahoo
5 hours ago
- Yahoo
Monaco billionaire developer says he's bailing on Carmel-by-the-Sea, a 'strange community'
Patrice Pastor spent big bucks on Carmel-by-the-Sea, in part because of cherished childhood memories, vacationing with his father in this charming, if quirky, coastal town. But after snapping up more than $100 million in properties in the area in recent years, the Monaco billionaire has grown increasingly infuriated by delays on his development projects, including a mid-sized retail and residential development that he has been trying to get approved. After six years of hold-ups and redesigns on that project — due, he said, to townsfolk endlessly nitpicking his plans — he has decided to bail on Carmel. "It's time to leave this strange community, if you can call it a community," Pastor said in a statement after the City Council this month delayed taking any action on the development, which he named the JB Pastor project in honor of his great-grandfather. City officials, he wrote, have used "reasons that are akin to a schoolyard" to stand in his way, and it is time, he said, to "reconsider my investment in Carmel." Read more: Why is a Monaco billionaire buying so many properties in Carmel and Big Sur? In Carmel-by-the-Sea, development — including upgrades to private homes — is notoriously slow. This wealthy Monterey County enclave strictly regulates architecture to maintain the much-vaunted "village character" of a place filled with cottages, courtyards and secret passageways. Residents in the one-square-mile town, population 3,200, have long sought to keep out the so-called trappings of city life. They have no street addresses, instead giving their homes whimsical nicknames like Almost Heaven and Faux Chateau. And they have no streetlights or sidewalks in residential areas. Over the last decade, Pastor has bought at least 18 properties, including The Hog's Breath Building, the site of the pub once owned by actor and former Carmel-by-the-Sea mayor Clint Eastwood; and the L'Auberge Carmel hotel, which houses a Michelin-star restaurant. In 2023, he paid $22 million for Cabin on the Rocks, the only oceanfront home ever designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Last year, the California Coastal Commission approved his 'visionary plan' to restore public access at Rocky Point, a seaside property he bought for $8 million in nearby Big Sur with views of the picturesque Rocky Creek Bridge. In Carmel-by-the-Sea — where, according to Zillow, the average home price is $2.3 million — Pastor's purchases have become a source of intrigue, and, for some, downright suspicion. Pastor is the scion of a powerful real estate family that built much of mega-rich Monaco, a dense, one-square-mile nation on the French Riviera. His defenders in Carmel-by-the-Sea have questioned whether he has been discriminated against because he is too rich. "We are not treated the same as everyone else," Pastor wrote this month. "I suppose we are now at the point where we need to accept we are not wanted and draw the necessary conclusions." The city has rejected several of Pastor's design proposals, including multiple pitches for a mixed-use development on the site of what locals call The Pit. Pastor bought the massive, unsightly hole in the ground — the site of a downtown construction project whose previous owners ran out of money seven years ago — for $9 million in 2020 and is still trudging through the city's permitting process. Pastor, in his statement, called the delays with that project a "grotesque situation." The latest opposition to his JB Pastor development may have been the final straw. Pastor's most recent plans call for a 12,971-square-foot, two-story complex on Dolores Street that includes eight upstairs apartments, roughly 5,100 square feet of ground-level retail space, and a dozen parking spaces. Plans submitted to the city in 2021 called for the demolition of a former bank annex once used as a community room. Because it was less than 50 years old, it did not qualify as a historic structure — but after it turned 50 in October 2022, the Carmel Historic Resources Board voted to add it to the city's historic resources list. Pastor agreed to build around the annex. Then, another issue arose: The project would require the removal of a small concrete wall, decorated with exposed aggregate and inlaid rocks, built in 1972 by a man local historians dubbed the 'father of stamped concrete.' In the fall of 2023, the City Council said the wall was too important to be moved and sent Pastor's company back to the drawing board. This April, the city's Planning Commission approved the project, marking a major milestone. Two weeks later, 11 residents and business owners filed an appeal. They argued that the development, which includes three buildings, exceeds the city's limit of 10,000 square feet. Each building is smaller than that. But the opponents said that since two buildings are connected by a second-story exterior walkway they should be considered a single structure — one bigger than 10,000 square feet. They also argued that the site would not have enough parking and that planned rooftop gardens would not meet the city's landscaping requirements because they would not be on the ground floor. "The plans that were submitted and approved in April are still outside of the guidelines and the rules of the city's codes," Courtney Kramer, one of the appellants, said during a City Council meeting Aug. 4. She said it was frustrating to residents who have "been through excruciating renovation projects and followed the rules" to see certain projects get a pass. City codes, she said, "need to be applied consistently in order to preserve this village in the forest." During the six-hour meeting, the City Council delayed making a decision on the appeal, putting everything on hold again. Ian Martin, one of the appellants, said in an interview Friday that the push-back against Pastor's projects is "absolutely nothing personal at all" and that longtime locals also go through the same long process. "Of course, Clint Eastwood was so frustrated with the planning process that he ran for mayor," Martin said. "Pastor is not being singled out." Eastwood, who was mayor in the 1980s, ran for office after fighting with the City Council over what he said were unreasonable restrictions on the design of an office building he wanted to erect. Pastor now owns that building. Martin said that of the 11 appellants, two are former City Council members and three, including himself, are former planning commissioners. They are "very well versed in the general plan and the municipal code and the design guidelines," he added. The group, he added, is "not opposed to the project." They just believe it has to play by the rules. Chris Mitchell, managing director of Esperanza Carmel LLC, the local branch of Pastor's international real estate company, said in a statement that "this process has made a mockery of the city's own rules." "Our project was reviewed for six years, redesigned five times, and approved by the Planning Commission and City staff," he wrote. He called the appeal a "last-minute" political maneuver and stall tactic. "The message from City Council is clear: it doesn't matter how much you follow the rules, if your business is not wanted here, you won't be treated fairly,' Mitchell wrote. The city administrator, city clerk and members of the City Council did not respond to requests for comment. Read more: There are no street addresses in Carmel-by-the-Sea. Some say it's time to change Karyl Hall, co-chair of the Carmel Preservation Assn., said Pastor has bent over backward to listen to the community and to design — and redesign — his projects with the town's traditional architectural styles in mind. Hall, a retired research psychologist, is an adamant supporter, albeit a surprising one. Hall believes modern architecture — which she describes as "Anywhere, USA" buildings with sterile facades and box-like structures — poses an existential threat to Carmel-by-the-Sea. She co-founded the preservation association in response to the first proposal for The Pit: a contemporary design approved by the Planning Commission for the previous owners that she called "the ice box." Hall said she was heartened by Pastor, who proposed more traditional buildings. In an interview Thursday, she said some in town believe "that one person who owns so many properties is kind of scary." But the billionaire, she said, has been treated unfairly. 'The one thing we can always count on with him, which is why I've been supportive, is he's done quality work and he's done work that reflects Carmel's character," Hall said. "You can't say that about most of the developers who move in here. They just want to make big bucks." It remains unclear what Pastor means by "leave" Carmel. Will he halt his ongoing projects? Or sell his properties? Tim Allen, a real estate agent who has handled most of the billionaire's local purchases, said Thursday that Pastor is weighing his options. 'We need new infrastructure. We need new housing — it's mandated by the state. He's building these things," Allen said. "I hope this town rallies around Patrice, or he's gone." Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
5 hours ago
- Yahoo
Monaco billionaire developer says he's bailing on Carmel-by-the-Sea, a 'strange community'
Patrice Pastor spent big bucks on Carmel-by-the-Sea, in part because of cherished childhood memories, vacationing with his father in this charming, if quirky, coastal town. But after snapping up more than $100 million in properties in the area in recent years, the Monaco billionaire has grown increasingly infuriated by delays on his development projects, including a mid-sized retail and residential development that he has been trying to get approved. After six years of hold-ups and redesigns on that project — due, he said, to townsfolk endlessly nitpicking his plans — he has decided to bail on Carmel. "It's time to leave this strange community, if you can call it a community," Pastor said in a statement after the City Council this month delayed taking any action on the development, which he named the JB Pastor project in honor of his great-grandfather. City officials, he wrote, have used "reasons that are akin to a schoolyard" to stand in his way, and it is time, he said, to "reconsider my investment in Carmel." Read more: Why is a Monaco billionaire buying so many properties in Carmel and Big Sur? In Carmel-by-the-Sea, development — including upgrades to private homes — is notoriously slow. This wealthy Monterey County enclave strictly regulates architecture to maintain the much-vaunted "village character" of a place filled with cottages, courtyards and secret passageways. Residents in the one-square-mile town, population 3,200, have long sought to keep out the so-called trappings of city life. They have no street addresses, instead giving their homes whimsical nicknames like Almost Heaven and Faux Chateau. And they have no streetlights or sidewalks in residential areas. Over the last decade, Pastor has bought at least 18 properties, including The Hog's Breath Building, the site of the pub once owned by actor and former Carmel-by-the-Sea mayor Clint Eastwood; and the L'Auberge Carmel hotel, which houses a Michelin-star restaurant. In 2023, he paid $22 million for Cabin on the Rocks, the only oceanfront home ever designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Last year, the California Coastal Commission approved his 'visionary plan' to restore public access at Rocky Point, a seaside property he bought for $8 million in nearby Big Sur with views of the picturesque Rocky Creek Bridge. In Carmel-by-the-Sea — where, according to Zillow, the average home price is $2.3 million — Pastor's purchases have become a source of intrigue, and, for some, downright suspicion. Pastor is the scion of a powerful real estate family that built much of mega-rich Monaco, a dense, one-square-mile nation on the French Riviera. His defenders in Carmel-by-the-Sea have questioned whether he has been discriminated against because he is too rich. "We are not treated the same as everyone else," Pastor wrote this month. "I suppose we are now at the point where we need to accept we are not wanted and draw the necessary conclusions." The city has rejected several of Pastor's design proposals, including multiple pitches for a mixed-use development on the site of what locals call The Pit. Pastor bought the massive, unsightly hole in the ground — the site of a downtown construction project whose previous owners ran out of money seven years ago — for $9 million in 2020 and is still trudging through the city's permitting process. Pastor, in his statement, called the delays with that project a "grotesque situation." The latest opposition to his JB Pastor development may have been the final straw. Pastor's most recent plans call for a 12,971-square-foot, two-story complex on Dolores Street that includes eight upstairs apartments, roughly 5,100 square feet of ground-level retail space, and a dozen parking spaces. Plans submitted to the city in 2021 called for the demolition of a former bank annex once used as a community room. Because it was less than 50 years old, it did not qualify as a historic structure — but after it turned 50 in October 2022, the Carmel Historic Resources Board voted to add it to the city's historic resources list. Pastor agreed to build around the annex. Then, another issue arose: The project would require the removal of a small concrete wall, decorated with exposed aggregate and inlaid rocks, built in 1972 by a man local historians dubbed the 'father of stamped concrete.' In the fall of 2023, the City Council said the wall was too important to be moved and sent Pastor's company back to the drawing board. This April, the city's Planning Commission approved the project, marking a major milestone. Two weeks later, 11 residents and business owners filed an appeal. They argued that the development, which includes three buildings, exceeds the city's limit of 10,000 square feet. Each building is smaller than that. But the opponents said that since two buildings are connected by a second-story exterior walkway they should be considered a single structure — one bigger than 10,000 square feet. They also argued that the site would not have enough parking and that planned rooftop gardens would not meet the city's landscaping requirements because they would not be on the ground floor. "The plans that were submitted and approved in April are still outside of the guidelines and the rules of the city's codes," Courtney Kramer, one of the appellants, said during a City Council meeting Aug. 4. She said it was frustrating to residents who have "been through excruciating renovation projects and followed the rules" to see certain projects get a pass. City codes, she said, "need to be applied consistently in order to preserve this village in the forest." During the six-hour meeting, the City Council delayed making a decision on the appeal, putting everything on hold again. Ian Martin, one of the appellants, said in an interview Friday that the push-back against Pastor's projects is "absolutely nothing personal at all" and that longtime locals also go through the same long process. "Of course, Clint Eastwood was so frustrated with the planning process that he ran for mayor," Martin said. "Pastor is not being singled out." Eastwood, who was mayor in the 1980s, ran for office after fighting with the City Council over what he said were unreasonable restrictions on the design of an office building he wanted to erect. Pastor now owns that building. Martin said that of the 11 appellants, two are former City Council members and three, including himself, are former planning commissioners. They are "very well versed in the general plan and the municipal code and the design guidelines," he added. The group, he added, is "not opposed to the project." They just believe it has to play by the rules. Chris Mitchell, managing director of Esperanza Carmel LLC, the local branch of Pastor's international real estate company, said in a statement that "this process has made a mockery of the city's own rules." "Our project was reviewed for six years, redesigned five times, and approved by the Planning Commission and City staff," he wrote. He called the appeal a "last-minute" political maneuver and stall tactic. "The message from City Council is clear: it doesn't matter how much you follow the rules, if your business is not wanted here, you won't be treated fairly,' Mitchell wrote. The city administrator, city clerk and members of the City Council did not respond to requests for comment. Read more: There are no street addresses in Carmel-by-the-Sea. Some say it's time to change Karyl Hall, co-chair of the Carmel Preservation Assn., said Pastor has bent over backward to listen to the community and to design — and redesign — his projects with the town's traditional architectural styles in mind. Hall, a retired research psychologist, is an adamant supporter, albeit a surprising one. Hall believes modern architecture — which she describes as "Anywhere, USA" buildings with sterile facades and box-like structures — poses an existential threat to Carmel-by-the-Sea. She co-founded the preservation association in response to the first proposal for The Pit: a contemporary design approved by the Planning Commission for the previous owners that she called "the ice box." Hall said she was heartened by Pastor, who proposed more traditional buildings. In an interview Thursday, she said some in town believe "that one person who owns so many properties is kind of scary." But the billionaire, she said, has been treated unfairly. 'The one thing we can always count on with him, which is why I've been supportive, is he's done quality work and he's done work that reflects Carmel's character," Hall said. "You can't say that about most of the developers who move in here. They just want to make big bucks." It remains unclear what Pastor means by "leave" Carmel. Will he halt his ongoing projects? Or sell his properties? Tim Allen, a real estate agent who has handled most of the billionaire's local purchases, said Thursday that Pastor is weighing his options. 'We need new infrastructure. We need new housing — it's mandated by the state. He's building these things," Allen said. "I hope this town rallies around Patrice, or he's gone." Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
