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Często Zadawane Pytania

What is this all about?

The city of Evanston is currently developing a new comprehensive plan and zoning code.

So, what is a comprehensive plan?

A comprehensive plan outlines a city’s vision for its future and includes goals and strategies to achieve that vision. Similar

to when you plan for your own future goals, the comprehensive plan is a way for the city to plan ahead about where to focus investment and energy over the next 20 years. A comprehensive plan is mainly focused on the built environment.

This includes things like:

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  • Land Use: what activities are allowed on certain
    property (housing, business, industry, etc)

  • Transportation: our roads, sidewalks, trails, and bikeways

  • Housing: the types of homes (single family, multifamily, social housing, etc) that are permitted or encouraged by land use and zoning regulations.

  • Parks and Open Space: access and quality of recreation facilities.

  • Natural Environment: natural spaces, waterways,
    and local ecosystems.

The items addressed in the comprehensive plan may directly or indirectly relate to other important topics that are less obviously tied to a specific element of the built environment such as:

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  • Historic preservation

  • Arts and culture

  • Climate

  • Equity and racial justice

  • Local economy

  • Health and wellbeing

What is a Zoning code?

A zoning code is the set of rules that outline how properties can be used and what can be built where. It is a major tool that helps achieve the vision and goals of the Comprehensive Plan. Part of this project will be updating our 31 year old code to ensure that is equitable and aligned with the community’s vision for how new development should occur in Evanston. Zoning code includes the type, size, and shape of buildings allowed in a certain part of town.

The last time we updated our comprehensive plan was in the year 2000 and our zoning code was approved in the year 1993. Take a second and think about where you were in those years. Think about how things have changed. This plan is being created to bring the documents that guide development in Evanston into alignment with today’s values.

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Activity:

Go around the room and in a couple of words share where you were and what you were doing in the years 1993 and 2000.

Lets start with an ice breaker….

Story Time!

The first step in creating a plan for the future is to understand how the people who live here experience the city. The goal of this meeting is to share our experiences and to build a foundation for what priorities the city should have as development occurs over the next 20 years.

Now that we have you thinking….

Q1A: What challenges do you face on daily basis living in Evanston? 

Guidance: What qualities or features of the city or your neighborhood make daily life more difficult? Think about things like walkability, access to groceries, commutes, quality of parks and open space, or something else. Are any of these an issue for you? Is there a consistent problem that affects your quality of life? For example, someone may have trouble accessing a service because there is no safe street crossing or sidewalk between their home and that service.

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Activity: Go around the room and share your answer. In a couple words, quickly explain what challenge you face and what you think could improve the situation. Think about this in the context of how the city is built and how you get around.

Q1B: Thinking about the challenges you discussed, share a story about a time that one of these challenges had a major impact on you.

Activity: Record a couple sentences that explain a specific experience where this challenge had a negative impact on you.

Q2A: What do you love about living in Evanston?

Guidance: Similar to our question about challenges, tell us what qualities make life easier and more enjoyable. Think about things like walkability, access to groceries, commutes, quality of parks and open space, or something else.

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Activity: Go around the room and share your answer. In a couple words quickly explain the qualities Evanston has that make life here better. Think about this in the context of how the city is built and how you get around.

Q2B: Thinking about the qualities you identified as loving about Evanston, tell us about a time this had a major impact on you.

Activity: Record a couple sentences that explain an experience where your favorite quality had a positive  impact on your experience.

Now, let's look at a map!

Q3: Tell us about an area in the city that you think needs improvement. 

We want to understand where things you discussed are located so that the plan can have focused recommendations for specific areas around the city. Click the "View Map" button above if you'd like to look at a map for reference.

Discussion: Go around the room and share your answer. In a couple words quickly explain why you chose this place. Is it because you feel unsafe, it’s uninspiring, it feels disconnected from the community, or something else?

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Activity: Write down the area you are thinking about and a short description of what you think needs to be improved.

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Guidance: Make sure to give us information such as an address, intersection, or nearby feature to help us locate this area.

If you made notes on the paper map found in the downloadable activity guide, upload it here.

Upload File

Q4: Everyone think about your favorite place in Evanston. This can be a park, a store, a street, specific neighborhood, anything you like. 

Discussion: Go around the room and share your answer. In a couple words quickly explain why you chose this place. Is it because you feel safe, inspired, connected to the community, or something else?

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Activity: Write down the area you are thinking about and a short description of what you like about it.

Building a vision.

Final Discussion.

One last activity!

Please make sure to fill out our online survey individually before leaving. This survey is incredibly important to ensure we have data that supports the recommendations that will be included in this plan. It should take no longer than 5 minutes.

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Before you leave…. Let’s take a group photo!

We are making a collage of all the wonderful groups contributing to this plan, if your group agrees to it, we would love to get a group photo or selfie! Note: Photo may be used in promotional materials.

Upload File

Meeting Outcome (for Host only)

*If you are not a host, please skip this section and scroll down to the bottom of the form and click submit.​

We want to make sure we know what parts of the community have been able to participate in this exercise. Please let us know the number of participants who fit the following categories:

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Write the number of participants who fit the age ranges below:

Write the number of participants who identify in each category below:

For more information about upcoming activities and to see how we incorporate your feedback, make sure to explore the project website. Thank you for taking the time to help us create the vision for the future of Evanston!

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