2019 Business Letters & Statements

Letters and statements from Central Street Businesses

Sent: Monday, June 3, 2019

To: Eleanor Revelle

Subject: Change to Evanston Zoning Ordinance

Alderman Revelle—I am the owner of Walsh Natural Health at 2116 ½ Central St. and am writing to regarding the proposed change to the zoning for the U2 district. Under the proposed change, Northwestern could legally apply to host professional sports and for profit events at the stadium and Welsh-Ryan arena, which as you know are near our business district. Parking during these events would likely cause a hardship for the local businesses here, with the exception perhaps of the bars/restaurants. We already loose business on football games during the fall, whereby the game-goers take up all of our parking spaces. While some of these people get parking tickets, they just view that as a parking fee and can be in our available parking throughout the day. My store is directly across from the parking lot so I have a full view of what is going on over there. It is easy to tell who is going to the game because they generally have Northwestern jerseys on, and/or flags on their car.

Changing the ordinance would likely cause more of these issues and I am therefore opposed to it. Right now, we have a lot of Wilmette customers that come to our street with their spending dollars. As Evanston continues to make parking here difficult in terms of additional fees, high monitoring, and more clogged parking areas, we are sure to lose these dollars to online business or other suburbs where these issues do not exist. I understand that these events may bring dollars to North western and ultimately the City, I am talking about year-round business going away if things become too difficult. I hope that you will vote down this ordinance change.

Lynn Bednar, Owner

And another comment from the same business

Northwestern Zoning Change

Lynn Bednar, 2671 Prairie St in Evanston and owner of Walsh Natural Health at 2116 1/2 Central St.

I am speaking on behalf of myself as I live in the neighborhood as well as many of the businesses on Central Street, 54 of which have signed the petition against the zoning change. I cannot make my statement on behalf of the entire Central St. Business Association since we do have a handful of bars and restaurants that support the proposed change.

First and foremost, I don't see the benefit to the community of the proposed change. Evanston already hosts many cultural and entertainment events in more appropriate locations. It seems to me to be primarily about Northwestern increasing its revenues. In addition, I'm told that there are locations on Northwestern's existing campus where concerts and other events can be held.

As a neighbor, I pay $18,000 in property taxes each year to live in this residential area. Northwestern's existing events already create a significant amount of traffic that make it very difficult to navigate the neighborhood. The parking issues go way beyond Green Bay Rd on Central St., as far west as even Crawford.

As a business owner on Central Street, I can firmly state that Northwestern's events cause a decline in business, and hence sales tax dollars to the City. A significant number of our customers are from Wilmette. Wilmette does not charge for parking in its business district, so the fact that Evanston does is already a negative for capturing retail sales from this affluent community. Add to that difficult access to our stores, and I fear that we will permanently lose some of those Wilmette shoppers, not just during Northwestern events, but rather on a year round basis. In the past, we could count on people coming another day. But now with the convenience of the internet, those sales will be permanently lost if we make it difficult for customers to both have easy access to and park in our neighborhood. While the City would benefit from the ticket tax revenue for Northwestern events, I would hope that the city will also factor in the loss of sales tax dollars that may be more permanent and apply to days beyond the days that Northwestern has events.

The multi-day event would be particularly difficult for businesses, as our sales may be impacted for days in a row. If these multi-day events do not constitute consecutive days, then aren't we in fact adding up to 13 new events, and not just 7?

If Northwestern continues to add events at its athletic facilities, this will likely decrease the property values in the neighborhood. This not only results to equity loss for residents, but also reduced property tax revenue for the City.

In summary, I believe that the City should take care of its residents' and businesses' legitimate concerns rather than agreeing to a proposal that really only benefits Northwestern.

And here is the statement read by the same business owner at the October 28, 2019 City Council meeting (video 1:42.15-1:44:24) . Here, she speaks on behalf of the businesses who signed the petition against the zoning amendment.

Hi, I’m Lynn Bednar,

I’m the owner of Walsh Natural Health which is about 3 blocks west of Northwestern’s facilities, athletic facilities. I’m speaking on behalf of the 54 Central Street businesses which have signed the petition against the proposed zoning change.

First and foremost, we don’t see the benefit to the community of the proposed change. Evanston already hosts many cultural and entertainment events in more appropriate locations. I’m told that there are locations on Northwestern campus where concerts or other events can be held that are not being utilized presently.

As a business owner on Central I can firmly state that Northwestern’s events cause a decline in business, and hence sales tax dollars to the city. I would invite the people earlier tonight who stated that these types of events do not cause a negative impact on businesses to visit the Central Street businesses before, during and after Northwestern’s events. You could shoot a cannon through some of our businesses on the days where there are events. Our customers need to have access to our stores and they need to be able to park when they get there. Both of these things are an issue with current events that are already happening, so the situation is, the problem is, the situation is already tenuous, and we are just adding to the pile here.

In the past we could have counted on people coming on a different day, you know, so before it wasn’t as much an issue. But now, with the advent of and prevalence of the internet that’s not the case. Those sales are many times permanently lost. You know, right now, you know, while the city would benefit from the ticket tax, I fear that they would [unintelligible], that the City would also factor in the loss of sales tax dollars that may be more permanent, and apply to days beyond the days that Northwestern has events. About half of our business comes from Wilmette and the northern suburbs and we don’t want to lose this valuable revenue. I think the City should not want to lose it either.

To: Eleanor Revelle Alderman, 7th Ward

Dear Alderman Revelle,

As a business owner in the Central Street district, this is to voice concern over the proposed expanded use of the Northwestern University athletic complex.

Berglund Animal Hospital is located at Broadway and Central. Although our clients primarily live in Evanston, Wilmette and Skokie, we also have many who travel from more distant suburbs and Chicago. We have been in business in Evanston since 1956, including recently celebrating five years at our newly remodeled Central Street location. Our business and client base has thrived at our new location.

On football game days and Northwestern events (such as graduation), clients are challenged by both the additional time needed to arrive in traffic and by parking restrictions.

Parking is a significant business concern. Parking is already limited for both our clients and staff. Through a rental arrangement with the City, staff park at Ryan Field. During Northwestern events, we are directed to park in designated residential areas, leaving less parking for Central Street business customers. Potential limitations on either spaces or availability, or increases in cost, will negatively affect our staff and our clients.

Larger and more frequent events will disrupt our clients travel and our staff access to their workplace, both negatively impacting a vibrant Evanston business. The result will be clients and their pets seeking care elsewhere. This will negatively impact our business as well as the surrounding businesses visited by our clients when in the area. Many of these animals need emergent care. The longer travel time can sometimes be the difference between saving a pet and relieving their suffering.

I look forward to learning about Northwestern’s plans including how it intends to manage overuse of public streets, walkways, resources and manage maintenance and cleaning. I also voice concern over our ability to maintain our business operations with the changes that would be necessary to do so with an expanded use facility.

Thank you for considering our concerns.

Fionnuala Teuber DVM

Medical Director/owner--Berglund Animal Hospital