East Parking Lot Issue

To: <mmjones@cityofevanston.org>, <cityclerk@cityofevanston.org>

August 20, 2019

Subject: NU East Ryan Parking Lot Issues and Questions

Re: NU East Ryan Parking Lot Issues and Questions (tailgaters, porta-bathrooms, parking, buffer zone, stormwater discharge, lighting)

To the Evanston City Council and the Evanston Plan Commission:

My wife and I purchased our residence at 1323 Chancellor Street in June, 1985. In September, 1985, (after the first NU home football game of the season), I personally telephoned Mr. Lee Ellis (Northwestern Vice-President for Business and Finance) to complain about tailgaters urinating throughout the adjoining residential neighborhood. It was a polite conversation.

I described to Mr. Ellis that numerous (hundreds) of tailgaters were publicly urinating in the East Dyche Stadium Parking Lot along my property line. They were often lined up along the fence, facing directly toward my house (for privacy reasons from their nearby tailgating friends). Many tailgaters were also trespassing onto private and public areas to urinate, including on my lawn, landscaping, and front porch…as well as numerous public streets, public alleys, and neighborhood garages, etc. I requested that Northwestern please deploy porta-bathrooms in the parking lot. Mr. Ellis told me that he would get it done before the next home football game. The porta-bathrooms were delivered within 48 hours and have been used since.

Unfortunately, every year since, NU always places several porta-bathrooms directly adjacent to our front porch. These bathrooms are literally 5 feet from our property line…an ugly eyesore for us and our visitors. According to the U2 zoning district code, NU is supposed to maintain a 35-foot transition zone on the residential perimeter of the parking lot, with city-approved landscaping in the 35-foot zone. However, city officials have said that NU doesn’t need to comply with the 35-foot requirement until they renovate the parking lot. So, some porta-bathrooms are deployed literally a few feet from private residential property.

There have been other Northwestern parking lot and noise ordinance issues. For example, in 2017-2018, I experienced a frustrating 18-month-long noise disturbance issue every business morning from 5-7 am. I tried to resolve it directly and diplomatically with Northwestern. After not getting it resolved, I asked Alderperson Eleanor Revelle for help. She ended the problem in less than 24 hours.

Another parking-buffer zone issue regards the parking and storage of various NU vehicles and equipment on the East Ryan lot immediately abutting my property (within a 3-5 feet of the property line). These items are well within the 35-foot buffer zone. A few examples include: 1) storage of 5 Reebie moving vans for three months in the summer of 2015; 2) storage of 6-8 large “Rat Pack” cubes for 6 months in 2018 and 2019; and 3) parking of a stadium lighting truck with the boom extended over my property for several days in May, 2019.

Last but not least, there is a significant drainage problem in the East Ryan Field Parking Lot which has never been addressed. Parking lot stormwater and snow melt are routinely discharged into storm/sanitary sewer openings on Chancellor Street. On even relatively brief downpours such as we have had this August, the water accumulates ankle deep on the eastern perimeter of the parking lot, forms a pond, and then overflows onto a public pathway at the end of Chancellor Street. Because of climate change, such illegal discharge of rainwater and concomitant pollutants into the sewer and navigable waterways is bound to worsen.

NU is resurfacing the entire parking lot during this summer (2019). Two projects are underway. City officials consider both to be “maintenance”, and do not trigger requirements to comply with existing city codes relating to stormwater control, 35-foot wide landscaped buffer, lighting, etc.

In June, 2019, NU embarked on a $412,000 project to repave part of the lot (17,500 square feet) using permeable pavers. Due to the poorly draining conditions of the soil, a perforated underdrain system was installed under the pavers by removing several feet of existing soil and replacing it with an aggregate stone base. Piping was installed with connections to the stormwater sewer. According to the “Stormwater Calculations” report (dated September 7, 2018), prepared by the Smith Group, the City of Evanston considered this project to be “maintenance.”
In July, 2019, Northwestern widened the scope of the repaving project to include grinding and repaving the entire remainder of the East Ryan lot. According to city personnel, this project was considered to be “maintenance” and did not trigger compliance with the 35-foot landscaped buffer, stormwater, or lighting requirements.

Two questions:

Specifically, exactly what type of parking lot renovation would constitute a project that requires compliance with the stormwater codes, 35-foot wide landscaped buffer zone, illumination, and other existing code requirements? If these two projects did not trigger the need to comply with longstanding code requirements, then effectively the city is repeatedly grandfathering the violations that have been there for decades
As of October, 1976 the East Ryan lot was still unpaved. At the time that the East Ryan lot was paved for the first time, did the code say anything about the 35-foot landscaped buffer zone and other requirements? And if so, why wasn’t it implemented?