City Staff Recommend Code Studio To Lead Zoning Rewrite — With Price Cuts

Evanston’s City Council will meet Monday evening in the Council Chambers at Morton City Hall, 909 Davis St., for its last scheduled meeting until Aug. 24. Councilmembers have a packed agenda to work through before their summer break, starting with a vote on adding an advisory referendum to the city’s Nov. 3 ballot that would ask residents if Northwestern University should have to make payments in lieu of property taxes to get zoning approval for “commercial uses” of its properties.

Farther down the agenda, however, is a much broader vote: awarding a consulting contract to rewrite the city’s zoning code, completing the in-progress Envision Evanston 2045 project. A staff evaluation group is recommending Austin-based Code Studio over Michigan-based McKenna, with the former firm scoring higher in every evaluation category except for price.

“Code Studio is recommended for its depth of experience translating ambitious visions into modern, user-friendly regulations,” Planning Manager Liz Williams wrote in a memo to councilmembers. “Their approach offers a highly collaborative team and a clear, phase-by-phase roadmap that will deliver a predictable, context-sensitive zoning ordinance tailored to Evanston.”

Code Studio is a national zoning firm that cited its experience working on projects in larger cities like Atlanta and Richmond, Virginia, while McKenna is a smaller regional firm that primarily works in its home state. Their different sizes led to bids that diverged substantially on approach, scope, timeline and especially price — Code Studio’s original bid of $1,088,580 was nearly three times higher than McKenna’s bid of $369,400.

But staff’s recommendation comes with some price cuts to Code Studio’s bid. Williams wrote that staff worked to “negotiate adjustments to the level of effort and related costs,” which shaved off $177,100 (about 16.3%) to bring the total to $911,480. Another $30,800 could be cut if councilmembers decide not to include an “optional city-wide built environment model” in the project.

Among other changes, the price reduction includes cutting out DemosPro Solutions, a firm run by former city planner Katie Ashbaugh, as a subconsultant. Ashbaugh’s firm was also a subconsultant included in McKenna’s bid, making her the only partner featured in both bids.

Nearly 40% of Code Studio’s new base price can be covered by $365,053 in unspent funds from the original Envision Evanston contract awarded to HDR, Inc., after which the contract would be paid with General Fund allocations in 2027 and 2028. The unspent HDR money comes from the federal American Rescue Plan Act and must be spent by the end of the year.

Code Studio estimates a project schedule of 18 to 24 months from launch to completion, with targets to release preliminary zoning concepts in the first quarter of 2027 and a full draft by year’s end, followed by final adoption by July 2028. If this adoption target is hit, then the entire Envision Evanston project will have taken just under five years to complete, starting with the council’s original contract award to HDR in July 2023.

Other notable items on Monday’s agenda include:

• Moving up to $2.5 million in federal ARPA funds from the McGaw YMCA men’s residence renovation project to the city’s “Affordable Housing Construction and Acquisition activity,” and shifting an equal amount from the city’s Affordable Housing Fund to the YMCA project. This move is intended to avoid the funds being recaptured after the end-of-year spending deadline, as the renovation project does not yet have a confirmed construction start date. $1 million of the reallocated ARPA funds would replace an equal amount of non-ARPA funding earmarked for the Church and Darrow affordable housing project, and the remaining $1.5 million would be used to acquire affordable rental properties for nonprofit partners to own and keep affordable in perpetuity.
• Preliminary approval of a proposal to amend the planned development for the Three Crowns Park retirement community, enabling the conversion of an existing building into independent living units and the construction of a new parking lot. The parking lot plans have been revised based on feedback from the Land Use Commission, increasing the lot’s setback from Colfax Street at the cost of seven spaces. If the ordinance passes Monday night, it will return for final approval on Aug. 24.

• Approving a special use permit for an Amazon “mini-fulfillment center” at 2312 Main St., which was recommended by the Land Use Commission in May. The applicant has provided a new traffic study at the commission’s request, resulting in two new conditions of approval from staff intended to relieve traffic burden. Councilmember Krissie Harris, whose Second Ward includes the site, is requesting a two-thirds majority vote to approve the special use permit for introduction and action at the same meeting.
• Trying for a third time to advance an ordinance either regulating or banning “sweepstakes machines,” which operate and look similar to virtual slot machines, but are legally distinct from video gambling terminals. The regulation ordinance got four votes at the council’s previous meeting on July 13 because of low attendance, one short of the five needed for a true majority of councilmembers.
• Preliminarily approving a ban on the secondhand sale or advertisement of one-day visitor parking passes, with penalties including a $200 fine and a suspension of residents’ ability to purchase visitor permits. Councilmember Parielle Davis (7th Ward) submitted a referral on this issue last October. It’s intended to prevent the “commercialization” of visitor passes in residential parking zones like those around Northwestern’s athletic campus.

City staff recommend Code Studio to lead zoning rewrite — with price cuts is from Evanston RoundTable, Evanston's most trusted source for unbiased, in-depth journalism.