By a 7-2 margin, City Council voted Monday night to allocate $207,361 to help District 65 install a track and lights around the playing field at the new Foster School, which is now under construction at the site of Foster Field near Fleetwood-Jourdain Community Center and Family Focus.
According to the now-approved plan, the city will draw on money from the Five-Fifths tax increment financing district (TIF) to pay for the $160,000 track in its entirety, and to evenly split the $94,722 cost of the three outdoor field lighting fixtures with District 65. An advisory committee that oversees the Five-Fifths TIF fund voted in favor of the cost-sharing agreement last week.
TIF districts are geographic areas that receive extra property tax revenue from the city for community projects like infrastructure improvements. The Evanston City Council established the Five-Fifths TIF district for the Fifth Ward in 2021.
Fifth Ward Council Member Bobby Burns initially proposed the track and lighting idea to city and school district staff back in June, District 65 Director of Strategic Project Management Kirby Callam said Monday.
Payments for the track and lights won’t actually be due until the middle of 2025, said Callam and city Economic Development Manager Paul Zalmezak.
But the Foster School architect – Cordogan, Clark & Associates – needs to submit a modified drainage system design to the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District accounting for a track. That permit application meant that the plan needed approval from the city this week at the latest, Callam and lead architect Michael Perez said.
Some members of City Council, especially Tom Suffredin (6th) and Krissie Harris (2nd) – the two votes against the funding allocation – said they wanted to see a more detailed, formal agreement between the city and school district outlining specific responsibilities and expectations for use of the field.
They also took issue with the tight timeline requiring a vote so quickly. Both Callam and Perez said the track would not be included in the final design if City Council didn’t vote yes on the $200,000 contribution on Monday. “We’re at that point in time where a decision is needed,” Perez said.
“Being forced to make a decision tonight is unfortunate. I think everyone in the community knows this project’s been plagued by unexpected deletions,” Suffredin said, referring to budget overruns on a previous K-8 school plan that forced the district to switch to a K-5 building instead. “And now to have an unexpected addition thrown at a separate government, and being told that it’s a ‘do it tonight’ thing, just further exacerbates the problem of mistrust that’s been plaguing this project.”
Adding to Suffredin’s concerns, Harris said she has “no problem” with the idea for the track and lights, but that “I don’t like somebody telling me we need to decide today” on a proposal that “just hit my desk Thursday night.”
District and city staff clarified that the track and lights specifically were a city-introduced proposal that Burns launched near the beginning of the summer. Burns also stressed that adding an outdoor recreation area accessible to the Fifth Ward community aligns with the mission of the Five-Fifths TIF and needs identified through the Evanston Process for the Local Assessment of Needs (EPLAN).
The city’s Health and Human Services Department completed the EPLAN in 2022, and research conducted as part of that project found that census tract 8092 in the Fifth Ward has a life expectancy 13 years lower than other Evanston neighborhoods. A track around the new school’s playing field, along with lights to extend its usable hours, would give residents there a place for healthy outdoor activity, Burns said.
“When the district made the decision to go from K-8 to K-5, there was an opportunity presented for myself and others to think about how the school could serve our other priorities in the community.” Burns said. “We’ve talked about it earlier this evening with the EPLAN – 13 years life expectancy gap. Another data point from the EPLAN is one in three adults in the same census tract reported no leisure time, physical activity and on and on.
“So when that opportunity presented itself, I quickly jumped in to try to represent the ward’s interest. … We’re confident this is a proposal that will serve the community’s needs,” Burns said.
Callam confirmed that the city and school district’s vision is for the track to be open to the public after school hours and on weekends, with it likely closing at 10 or 11 p.m. every night, as other parks and beaches do.
Accounting for tax collections this fall and other spending, Zalmezak estimated that the $200,000 expense will leave the Five-Fifths TIF fund at around $100,000 – but the payments will not be made for around a year, so there could be more money in the fund when the bills actually come due.
City Council approves $200,000 for Foster School track and lights is from Evanston RoundTable, Evanston's most trusted source for unbiased, in-depth journalism.