Commissioners at the Evanston Preservation Commission spent extensive time reviewing the city's Strategic Housing Plan, focusing on how the plan would affect existing housing stock, preservation objectives and neighborhood stability. The discussion ranged across definitions of "naturally occurring affordable housing," proposals for conservation districts, transfer of development rights (TDR), adaptive reuse and barriers to bringing upper‑story and accessory dwelling units (ADUs) back into production.

The conversation matters because the Strategic Housing Plan is intended to guide zoning updates and housing strategies for the next decade; commissioners said preservation goals and neighborhood stability should be explicitly linked to those actions. Speakers asked for clearer definitions, mapped inventories of naturally occurring affordable housing, and explicit safeguards where new incentives could unintentionally accelerate demolition or height increases in sensitive areas.

A member of the public who signed up for comment urged the commission to add conservation districts to the plan and to oppose the social and market effects of transferring development rights. The commenter warned against loosening controls: "I think this is a dangerous, dangerous item. I think it would create a wild, wild west of, you know, everyone around town selling their air rights," and asked the commission not to include broad transfer mechanisms in the plan.

Commissioners and staff discussed several recurring themes:

- Definitions and mapping: Commissioners urged the housing plan to define "naturally occurring affordable housing" and to produce an inventory or map identifying where such housing types are concentrated. That mapping, they said, would enable targeted conservation districts, zoning adjustments and outreach.

- Conservation districts and thematic approaches: Several commissioners recommended adding conservation districts or overlays as an explicit preservation tool in the plan to allow bottom-up neighborhood protections for housing types (for example, worker cottages or intact bungalow typologies) that may not form contiguous historic districts but exist in concentrations.

- Transfer of development rights (TDR): Commissioners were divided but cautious. Some saw TDR as a tool to compensate owners of landmark or low‑scale properties while enabling denser development in designated receiving areas; others warned it could allow buyers to exceed desirable height or scale limits if not tightly regulated. Commissioners asked for explicit guardrails (caps, limits on who may purchase, linkage to affordability outcomes and geographic limits such as restricting TDR to downtown/receiving zones rather than residential neighborhoods).

- Adaptive reuse and upper‑story housing: The commission urged elevating adaptive reuse in the plan (reusing large houses, commercial upper floors, churches and coach houses for housing) and creating incentives or an upper‑story housing inventory to identify vacant or underused units and the cost to return them to production.

- ADUs and coach houses: Commissioners suggested streamlining permitting and offering clear resources for owners interested in renting coach houses or ADUs, while preserving review thresholds for highly visible or corner-lot cases.

- Building code and fire-safety barriers: Commissioners noted building-code requirements (for example, requirements for multiple means of egress) can block feasible reuse of upper floors and urged the city to explore code alternatives or incentives (sprinklers, approved design approaches) for historic or existing structures.

- Property taxes and fiscal context: Multiple commissioners raised property-tax burden as an affordability driver in Evanston, noting the city's large tax-exempt footprint and a comparatively small commercial tax base. Commissioners recommended the plan acknowledge tax context when framing affordability strategies.

Speakers suggested practical next steps for staff and the Housing & Community Development Committee: add clearer definitions and a glossary; map naturally occurring affordable housing concentrations; expand the plan's treatment of conservation districts and adaptive reuse; specify TDR guardrails and stated community benefits linked to any TDR program; and consider an outreach/presentation from a municipality with an established conservation-district program.

No formal action or vote on the Strategic Housing Plan occurred at the meeting; staff will forward the commission's comments to the Housing & Community Development Committee for consideration.