The Evanston City Council voted Monday night to delay the final decision on the rebuild and commercialization of Northwestern University’s Ryan Field until a special council meeting on Nov. 20.
The vote by the council also delayed Evanston City Manager Luke Stowe from signing a memorandum of understanding between the city and Northwestern.
The vote to table was 6-2. Council members Krissie Harris and Devon Reid voted against tabling. The pair, along with Councilmember Bobby Burns, held a town hall meeting Thursday to get further comment from residents.
Reid said he felt he and other council members who put in the effort to negotiate with the university were being overpowered by those who hadn’t come to the table.
“We did a lot of heavy lifting. I can’t tell you how much time I spent this weekend focusing on this,” Reid said. “I think it’s unfair that council members who haven’t been putting in the time are leading in the way of this proposal.”
The project would see the aging stadium demolished and rebuilt at the cost of $800 million with funds donated by the Ryan family. Northwestern also wants to host up to six concerts at the stadium annually along with other events to get more use out of the structure beyond football season. In order to allow this, the City Council has to approve of zoning changes to the district the stadium is housed in — a residential neighborhood at the northern edge of the city abutting Wilmette.
Councilmember Jonathan Nieuwsma proposed the motion to table, arguing the council needs more time to make sure all documents are shored up including the updated memorandum of understanding, made public Saturday. He said he does not plan to continue negotiations with Northwestern and added the updated deal before the city is even better than what was previously proposed.
The new memorandum increased the amount of guaranteed annual tax revenue from events held at the stadium to $2.5 million from $2 million, gives the city further control over the funding Northwestern has promised and adjusts the annual contribution to the Good Neighbor Fund based on the consumer price index up to 3% a year.
The new memorandum of understanding also states that the entirety of the proposed benefits to the city are contingent upon the rebuild of the 97-year-old stadium and its ability to host concerts without “unreasonable restraints being imposed by the city.”
Both the council chamber and antechamber were full of spectators, but it was a smaller crowd than previous meetings that required several spillover rooms. The smaller crowd lent itself to a more equal split between pro- and anti-Ryan Field opinions.
“I was on that stadium working group for seven months, was reassured every two weeks by (Dave Davis, executive director of NU’s Neighborhood and Community Relations) there wouldn’t be concerts, there was no intention to do that,” resident Robert Sokol said during public comment. “We were lied to.”
David DeCarlo, co-founder of Most Livable Cities Association, which has fought against the commercialization of the stadium, thanked the council for giving the issue more time but asked council to consider the impact a perpetual agreement has on residents.
“The city of Evanston stands on the brink of making a permanent, irrevocable zoning change that would impact the lives of thousands of Evanstonians — a change the Evanston Land Use Commission rejected overwhelmingly,” read a statement from MLCA. “Like its previous offers, NU’s latest (memo of understanding) would mean all of Evanston zoning is for sale to unaccountable billionaires and powerful institutions. No Evanston neighborhood or ward would be safe.”
Northwestern spokesperson Hilary Hurd Anyaso said in a statement the university is disappointed in the delayed vote but remains confidant the vote will come down in their favor next week.
