Ready To Rock At Ryan Field: Plan For Concerts At New Football Stadium Approved

EVANSTON, IL — Northwestern University officials received final approval from a narrowly divided Evanston City Council for their plans to rebuild Ryan Field and start hosting concerts there.

Mayor Daniel Biss broke a series of 4-4 votes in favor of advancing the university's plan at a six-hour special meeting that started early Monday evening and ended early Tuesday morning to clear the way for approval of two ordinances and a resolution.

The voting breakdown on the council was the same for the ordinance permitting up to six public facing concerts a year as when it was introduced on Oct. 30, with Ald. Krissie Harris, 2nd Ward; Ald. Jonathan Nieuwsma, 4th Ward; Ald. Bobby Burns, 5th Ward; and 8th Ward Ald. Devon Reid voting in favor. And it was again opposed by 1st Ward Ald. Clare Kelly, 3rd Ward Ald. Melissa Wynne, 6th Ward Ald. Thomas Suffredin, and 7th Ward Ald. Eleanor Revelle.

Revelle, Suffredin and Wynne are the only councilmembers not serving their first term and who preceded Biss on the council. The first-term Evanston mayor, meanwhile, only voted because the nine-member City Council was shorthanded due to the recusal of 9th Ward Ald. Juan Geracaris — a Northwestern employee and one of two councilmembers who were first appointed by Biss after the university announced its stadium rebuilding plan.

By approving it, Biss earned the wrath of community members who accuse him of selling out the city for a billionaire donor and a powerful private university. (Opponents have already launched a "Better Than Biss" campaign to oust him.) But had university officials appeared to have walked away from the deal, even momentarily, it could have dented any future political ambitions harbored by the mayor.

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"My instinct from day one was: concerts are a good thing if we do them right," Biss told Patch after the vote. "And I think what we've done is put in place enough guardrails so that they will be done right."

Before granting final approval to the ordinance authorizing the demolition and reconstruction of the 97-year-old Ryan Field — known as Dyche Field prior to previous renovations funded by Winnetka billionaire Pat Ryan — the City Council made a slight amendments to its memorandum of understanding, or MOU, with Northwestern and the ordinance that modified the U2 zoning district in which the stadium is located.

That MOU includes a public benefits agreement worth about $10 million a year over the next 15 years, as long as city officials do not impose any "unreasonable restraints" on the university's ability to host concerts there.

"What we're trying to capture in that language is, more or less, restraints that make it impossible for us to hold the events that are contemplated by the approval ordinances," said Katie Jahnke Dale, an attorney representing Northwestern from the firm DLA Piper. "We can't really come up with an enumerated list of what that would be."

An amendment proposed by Burns that adds a non-binding recital into the introductory "whereas" portion of the MOU was the lone change to it approved Monday, after Kelly's effort to include a definition of "unreasonable restraints" failed to garner enough votes.

"What is reasonable today, or unreasonable today, will not be unreasonable or reasonable in five or 10 years," Reid said, arguing against the inclusion of a definition or examples of such restraints.

"We'll never be able to predict the future and know what's going to be reasonable 10 years from now," he said. "This whole discussion is kind of unreasonable."

Some substantive amendments proposed by Revelle were adopted: applying the general city ordinance restricting idling, specifying that concerts cannot begin in the zoning district until the stadium is rebuilt and that the university cannot rent out its plazas to outside organizations.

But an effort to include a "sunset" provision that would have made the zoning changes expire after 15 years — the same time as the pledged public benefits — failed to break the four-vote threshold. So did the suggestion of increased oversight from city staff.

Jahnke Dale, the university's attorney, described those proposed amendments as "nonstarters."

"We're tearing down our football stadium in reliance of these ordinances getting approved, including the ability to have these events in perpetuity," Jankhe Dale said. "I know the public benefits package is 15 years. That said, most public benefit packages include one-time payments for permanent improvements."

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Nieuwsma said he had wanted a sunset clause to be included in the deal and had tried to negotiate one with Northwestern representatives.

"I made my case as best as I could, and honestly I was unsuccessful in convincing Northwestern to see the wisdom of this point of view. What we got instead was an increased financial package under the community benefits agreement, and what we still have in place is regulatory oversight with regard to the sound levels, the curfew times, the potential public nuisance impacts," Nieuwsma said, explaining he believed the city retained authority over the site in both the short and long term.

"I'm not going to support this amendment, although I would love to be able to, because it's been part of the discussion that has allowed us to get to a place where we're looking at a multi-million dollar community benefits package," the 4th Ward councilmember said, explaining his vote against the clause he said he would have preferred.

Reid said he said considers the agreement to have a "built-in sunset clause" when the money for public benefits runs out — 15 years after the stadium's anticipated 2025 completion date. Meanwhile, some of the funding is set to begin next year.

"Once Northwestern gives us the money for the 17 years, we have every right to change our zoning code if we feel that this isn't right. Yes, we will have to give them a ramp-down period from the six concerts, if that's what we chose," Reid said.

"And I do believe that in 17 years, these concerts and the new stadium will likely be woven in so deeply to the fabric of our community that folks won't want to get rid of the six concerts," he added. "So I imagine that they will stay."

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Revelle said she did not take part in negotiations over the MOU because she did not think it was appropriate to tie a zoning change to financial compensation.

"To me, it seems that the amendment is proposing to shoehorn a major concert venue into a residential neighborhood with limited parking," said Revelle, who represents the 7th Ward where the stadium is located. "I think it will erode the essential residential character of the surrounding neighborhood and undermine the protections that the zoning code has really provided to these neighborhoods for decades."

Harris, whose predecessor as 2nd Ward councilmember was a part of Northwestern's team representing the stadium project, said she had carefully followed the deliberations of the Land Use Commission and took its 7-2 vote to recommend the council reject the rezoning request into consideration.

"This will revitalize Evanston," Harris said, explaining her support for the project.

"And 7th Ward, I'm sorry that you have to carry that on your back, because the 2nd and 5th Ward we carry things on our back for the city. There's no personal gain. We do it for the city and we'll figure out how to get out of it later, but we're doing it for the city," Harris said. "Character of the community? Maybe it's time the community needs to change what you believe your character is, because character isn't always good."

Harris said councilmembers listened to the community and took suggestions to the negotiation table to get the best deal possible.

"There's very few people that're emphatically saying 'no,'" she said. "What I'm hearing is, 'get the money and we'll be OK with it.'"

Dave Davis, Northwestern's chief liaison to the city, emphasized that the university has guaranteed a significant financial contribution to the city as well as cash to local schools.

As part of the 15-year public benefit agreement, Northwestern guarantees at least $3 million a year to the discretionary Good Neighbor Fund and at least $2.5 million in annual tax revenue.

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"Guarantees are included as part of this MOU," Davis told Suffredin, offering an example of something the 6th Ward councilmember had publicly requested.

"I also wanted it for the lifetime of the stadium," Suffredin said.

"Because we negotiated," Davis responded.

"We didn't negotiate," Suffredin said. "You picked five other people to negotiate, and congratulations, it looks like it worked."

Biss said he believed stadium deal was not the city's best chance to negotiate a permanent, binding revenue stream from Northwestern. The private university is the largest property owner, but it does not pay property taxes nor compensate the city's fire department for the up to $1 million in free emergency calls it receives — despite its $14 billion endowment and the nearly $100 million a year it anticipates receiving from the Big Ten Conference television deal set to take effect after next year.

"I don't think this was the time for us to get a permanent structure. We elongated the deal dramatically throughout this process, even very recently it went from 10 years to 15 years after we fought hard to get it to 10. I just don't think now is the time we were going to get there on permanence," Biss told Patch. "To make that happen, I think would have required bigger concessions on other stuff and it wouldn't have been worth it."

Unlike some other councilmembers, the usually loquacious mayor kept his positions on the stadium plan mostly private until he began casting tiebreaking votes in its favor three weeks ago.

But after the vote was complete, Biss published a 2,400-word message explaining of his reasoning. He said he met regularly with Northwestern representatives and pushed them to offer more to the city, while every other councilmember was also free to negotiate on their own behalf.

"That made the situation a little chaotic. But it also granted every Councilmember a lot of power – especially because the ultimate passage happened without any votes to spare," Biss said.

"I’m pleased to say that Councilmembers took that power seriously and used it to Evanston’s benefit," he added. "Everyone who voted yes drove an extremely hard bargain before doing so, and the fact that Northwestern had to satisfy all the yes votes simultaneously wound up being enormously helpful to all Evanston residents and taxpayers."

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In a statement after the meeting, Davis described Monday's City Council votes as a "pivotal moment" for the relationship between the city and university.

“We’re embarking on a journey that promises not just a state-of-the-art stadium, but also a beacon of cultural and economic vitality," Davis said. "This project is a testament to our shared vision of progress and prosperity.”

David DeCarlo, the president of the Most Livable City Association, issued a statement after the vote indicating the group of area residents formed to oppose the zoning change plan to take their fight to the courts.

"Tonight, our city government sided with powerful insiders and the billionaire donor who controls Northwestern Athletics, against the families who live in this community. It's been an eye-opening experience: We've learned that Mayor Biss is just another politician, making backroom deals to advance his career instead of representing the people who elected him," DeCarlo said.

"After carefully weighing the evidence, Evanston’s Land Use Commission overwhelmingly rejected commercial rezoning for the stadium. Mayor Biss and four councilmembers completely ignored that evidence and sold our zoning protections to Northwestern. Our fight will continue now as we seek legal recourse."

Related:

• Final Vote On Ryan Field Concerts Pushed To Special Meeting
• Evanston City Council Set For Final Ryan Field Concert Rezoning Vote
• Mayor Daniel Biss Casts Deciding Vote In Favor Of Ryan Field Concerts
• Deny Request For Ryan Field Concerts, Land Use Commission Recommends