Northwestern and City of Evanston Playing Monopoly?
Evanston needs a new civic center, and for the building site, the city is trying to get Northwestern University to sell them the land near Oak Street that is used now for the Farmer’s Market in the summer time on Saturdays and as a parking lot at other times when it is not being used as the locale for the Farmer’s Market. At least that is what an article in the Friday online version of the Daily Northwestern indicated. Also pointed out in the online article was that the city may evoke ‘eminent domain’ as a method of obtaining the land. ‘Eminent domain’ is a way government as of obtaining property for public use at fair market value when an agreement can not be reached with the owner through regular negotiations.
The article by Vincent Bradshaw and Matt Presser stated that Northwestern was trying to get the city to change zoning laws to allow them to build more classrooms and dormitories as part of sweetening the deal but that city officials have not responded to that overture. The article pointed out that a flyer had been put out indicating that property values would go down if the new buildings were allowed to go up on Sheridan Road, the proposed site of the hoped for Northwestern buildings.
To me Northwestern is sort of like asking the city for money plus the right to build houses on Boardwalk but then I never fully developed my Monopoly skills.
By Flo Crew
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