Environmental Justice
As a local program, we first set out to focus on the Environmental injustice of the Church Street Waste Transfer Station and to seek other Evanston organizations also working on that serious problem. We were fortunate to be included in the new Environmental Justice Coalition, which is composed of: the Environmental Justice Committee of the NAACP, Environmental Justice Evanston, Climate Action Evanston, Evanston Cradle to Career, the Stead Center at Garrett Seminary, and Lighthouse Rotary. We have become actively connected to the NAACP, which is working closely with Garrett to seek air monitoring around the Waste Transfer Station.
We also look forward to helping with Environmental Justice Evanston, who have worked on the problem of the Waste Transfer Station for a long time. And there will be a report and discussion on the city’s Environmental Equity Investigation which we look forward to learning about.
A working group including eight to ten LWVE members met regularly through the fall and winter and into spring. Our first goal was to become familiar with the draft Comprehensive Plan providing the base for Envision Evanston 2045 and the revised Zoning Code which will be the second stage. Our initial activity was to read the ten chapters of the draft Plan carefully. We exchanged notes on each chapter, identifying major goals, areas that might be consistent or inconsistent with LWVE positions, and specifying data or conclusions that might be missing. After discussing our findings, we drafted a report to send to City staff outlining our findings and concerns.
The Committee met in March to consider the revised draft of the Plan. We agreed that the revised Plan was an improved document and determined to identify continued concerns. In early April, we sent a summary of our concerns to the Land Use Commission (which is taking the lead in studying the Plan to send comments and revisions to the Council) and City staff. It is anticipated that the Land Use Commission will senda draft of the Comprehensive Plan to the newly elected Council for review and approval later this spring. Following approval of the Plan, the proposed new Zoning Code will go through an equally rigorous analysis over the summer. The LWVE working group will continue to monitor the complex process. Our goal is to inform our elected Representatives of our support or questions on the process and to share our observations and conclusions with our members.