The City of Evanston will receive nearly $12 million from Northwestern University before deduction from Ryan Field demolition and construction permits.
City Budget Manager Clayton Black highlighted these funds during a finance presentation at last week’s Fourth Ward meeting at the Robert Crown Community Center.
“We expect to get our first payment towards the permit revenue here in a couple of months,” Black said at the meeting. “We’ll be talking with the finance and budget committee and City Council about how best to use that one-time $12 million payment.”
A number of expensive items are on the city’s docket for the coming years, including questions over the future of the Civic Center, police and fire headquarters and the Noyes Cultural Arts Center. The city has not raised property taxes in four years, either.
The Ryan Field permit payments will go into Evanston’s general fund, and could end up going toward costs on any of those projects, or others.
“Do we make progress on this list with some of that one-time revenue? Or do we use that to continue to hold property taxes?” Black asked as an example of questions City Council needs to consider and eventually answer about this money from Northwestern.
The one-time payment comes in addition to other funding connected to construction of the new Ryan Field, including from the Community Benefits Agreement negotiated by city officials and university leaders.
To help the city benefit from construction, Northwestern will put $3 million a year into a Good Neighbor Fund for 15 years. Of that $3 million, $1 million is already earmarked for affordable housing, and another $500,000 will go to local sustainability initiatives, according to Black.
The annual $3 million is part of an estimated $10 million a year combined that Northwestern plans to pay out through tax revenue generated by the stadium and other commitments to community organizations and endeavors across Evanston.
Reversing previous plans to play home football games outside Evanston during the next two seasons, Northwestern will host contests on campus at a temporary lakefront stadium now under construction. The stadium will have a capacity of about 15,000, and keeping games in Evanston will help offset lost revenue from the typical amusement taxes collected from game days at Ryan Field.
City to receive nearly $12 million in Ryan Field permit fees is from Evanston RoundTable, Evanston's most trusted source for unbiased, in-depth journalism.