Wilmette Village Board approves agreement with Evanston over Ryan Field

The Wilmette Village Board voted unanimously on Tuesday to approve the intergovernmental agreement with Evanston over the use of Northwestern University’s Ryan Field for up to six annual concerts despite vocal objections by some residents who want the village to sue.

At one point, Village President Senta Plunkett urged residents to respect the process and refused to reopen the public comment period.

“We’ve been listening for the past year and we’ve been listening to everybody who spoke tonight and on every single occasion,” she said. “I can’t tell you how hard we’ve worked on this. We feel for you on this, we really do.”

Evanston City Council also unanimously approved the agreement during its Monday regular meeting.

The agreement states that all traffic related to the field — including demolition, construction, concert activity and concert attendees — are not permitted to go in or through the village. The village is working on expanded parking restrictions in nearby neighborhoods during basketball games and could use this as a template for restrictions during concerts and other events, according to Wilmette Village Manager Michael Braiman. Restrictions already exist for football games. He also said the village could block off residential streets or increase violation fines if needed.

Braiman acknowledged it is impossible to prevent people from using Wilmette streets to get to events at Ryan Field unless the village blocks them off, but traffic management plans are not allowed to identify Wilmette streets as routes to or from the venue.

If concert setup or teardown vehicles breach traffic management rules, they could be ticketed and if repeated, damages could be sought in court for breach of contract.

To address concert noise, sound management devices are to be installed in Wilmette and if triggered beyond the acceptable threshold, the village is entitled to half of the fine revenue gathered by Evanston. The village would only receive fine revenue based on the thresholds outlined in Evanston. The field is on Evanston land and the village has no jurisdiction, even if the sound travels, according to Jeffrey Stein, corporation counsel.

Wilmette will also have the opportunity to review sound mitigation strategies from Northwestern before it goes to Evanston for approval, per the agreement.

The agreement requires that an onsite construction representative be available to resolve issues in real time.

“It was very important to us that individuals have a cellphone number that’s accessible to our residents so they can text or call in real time and resolve issues rather than simply submitting a request to the online 311 system,” Braiman said.

Vibration monitoring devices will also be installed to record the impact of demolition and construction in the event any nearby homes are damaged.

Some final notes of the agreement require Evanston to support the university’s continued reimbursement of expenses to Wilmette, including public safety and police, and that the village gets the opportunity to review and provide feedback on drafted management plans for the stadium. Plunkett will also appoint a Wilmette representative to the Evanston/Northwestern Community Advisory Council once it has begun. The council is designed as an oversight measure to handle any issues in the field affecting either community.

Plunkett said during the meeting that the village is still with those who have been fighting the commercialization of the field and hopes that even those who disagree with the agreement understand that.

“The most effective path forward at this time is to approve an IGA. Lengthy and costly litigation cannot guarantee to secure our community like this IGA will now,” Plunkett said. “Tonight is just one step in the process to protect Wilmette residents.”

The village was able to retain the right of litigation regarding any issue with Ryan Field beyond challenging Evanston’s zoning vote, which allowed for events at the stadium even with the agreement in place.

“It breaks my heart that a neighboring community has been so thoughtless and self-interested and that a well-endowed university has chosen to turn a blind eye to the welfare of a community which has hosted and supported it for over 170 years,” Trustee Gina Kennedy said.

Residents opposed to the agreement argued the village should fight the zoning ordinance in court before the deadline to file opposition expires on Feb. 16. One such lawsuit has already been filed by about a dozen Wilmette residents and Evanston’s Most Livable City Association.

“If we don’t do anything at all, as of Friday, we’re done,” Wilmette resident Brad Birge said. “File your claim, you can always dismiss it, but otherwise you’re leaving us in a lurch.”

Resident Marianne Hopman compared the agreement to the fabled Doctor Faustus’ deal with the devil.

Others argue the agreement does nothing to protect property values in the way filing a lawsuit to stop the rezoning could.

“One thing I’ve learned is that you cannot trust Northwestern,” resident Colleen Caughlin said. “Think about what this neighborhood is going to become. How are we going to sell homes? How are we going to enjoy it?”

The village board stressed the agreement was created in place of litigation that couldn’t give the village any guarantees, could be costly and drag on for years.

“Without this IGA, our ability to control traffic would not be there. Our ability to do a lot of things that are going to be of immediate concern to the neighborhood, we wouldn’t be able to do, in my understanding, without the IGA,” Kennedy said.