CARP Implementation Task Force Chair Katarina Topalov and some of its other members are worried that all of the input they have already shared with the Envision Evanston 2045 comprehensive plan consultant team might have been in vain.
Concerns about the process of developing a new city comprehensive plan and zoning code took up much of the Wednesday meeting of the task force, a subcommittee of the Environment Board specifically created to keep track of Evanston’s progress on its Climate Action and Resilience Plan.
Both the task force and the board weighed in on the Envision Evanston plan several times during the summer, but several task force members who attended Envision Evanston community outreach meetings said they didn’t feel like the suggestions they had submitted were necessarily reflected in what they saw.
After some discussion, the task force broadly agreed to wait and see what the early draft looks like.
The consulting team held several focus groups and workshops two weeks ago. All four task force members who were present at Wednesday’s meeting attended several of those events, and while they generally felt that the discussions were productive, they had some misgivings.
Task force member Jerri Garl said she was disappointed that there didn’t seem to be interest in doing a “policy audit,” looking at earlier citywide and local plans and “overlaying them, so you can see where they are in conflict and where there is consistency.” As she noted, the task force has urged the consultants to take past and existing plans into account.
The task force also previously urged the consultants to incorporate environmental sustainability into every facet of the plan. While some focus groups, such as the transportation focus group, included that, the members were worried that they didn’t hear it at others.
“That’s what [Evanston neighborhood and land use planner Meagan Jones] said at one of the council meetings, that the environmental sustainability is going to be interwoven in all of these chapters,” Topalev said. “But, at this point, I’m not sure we’re seeing that.”
Garl said that she attended the Aug. 23 Land Use and Built Environment focus group “because I thought that’s where the CARP stuff was going to land,” but she was left wanting.
Topalov said she wanted to “clarify what kind of input would be the best for us to present” in order to have impact. “I don’t want us to be spending time on something that’s not going to be the part of the comprehensive plan,” she said.
‘More happening’ than just focus groups, workshops
Task force member Matt Cotter, who is also the Environment Board co-chair, said that while he hoped the focus groups and workshops “were slices of a big picture, I think there’s more happening than those meetings.”
Garl suggested that they should “wait and see” approach. Topalov said that city officials told her that the first draft of the plan won’t be released until mid-October – but the task force would most likely get a table of contents by mid-September. The task force agreed that this, at least, should give some sense of the general shape of the plan, which will give the group something to discuss at its Oct. 2 meeting.
Cara Pratt, the city sustainability and resilience manager, assured the task force that she believes that the feedback and recommendations it has provided over the past few months have been valuable. She also said that, in discussions with consultants, she and Kirsten Drehobl, one of the city ‘s sustainability and resilience specialists, made sure environmental sustainability was part of the conversations.
Garl said she appreciated everything Pratt has done for the task force.
“We’re super lucky to have you in this position,” she said.
Is Envision Evanston team listening? CARP task force has its doubts. is from Evanston RoundTable, Evanston's most trusted source for unbiased, in-depth journalism.