Friday, September 23, 2022 | View in browser
Margarita Inn Good Neighbor Agreement—Volunteers Needed
Greetings friends! Thank you to everyone who came out to the neighborhood meeting on Wednesday this week for an update on the Margarita Inn process. In case you missed it (both the Roundtable and
Evanston Now covered it if you want to catch up), I wanted to invite you to participate in developing a Good Neighbor Agreement (GNA)—cutting to the chase, you can sign up here if you’re interested.
As I explained Wednesday, the GNA is one leg of a three-legged stool of oversight and guidance that we’re putting together which will provide our community full confidence that operating the Margarita Inn as an intermediate-term homeless shelter will be done effectively, safely, and with minimal disruption to the neighborhood.
The GNA will be an agreement between Margarita Inn/Connections and the neighborhood that at a high level will outline mutual expectations and establish communications channels. What will that look like? I can’t say yet—those details will be fleshed out by a GNA committee.
The GNA committee will be small group of 10-12 people representing
homeowners, renters, landlords, businesses owners, and maybe others. And of course, Margarita Inn/Connections for the Homeless.
Here’s the proposed process and timeline:
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Recruit potential GNA committee members: if you’re interested in participating on the GNA committee, sign up here. You’ll be asked which stakeholder group you represent. Deadline: September 28.
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Stakeholder group meeting: each stakeholder group will meet separately (likely on Zoom, details TBD) to select one or two “delegates” to the GNA committee. Target: October 5.
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First GNA committee meeting: the GNA committee will meet to select a moderator, agree on a decision making process, and get homework—sample GNA’s from other communities. Target: October 14.
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Additional GNA meetings: the GNA committee will meet as required to draft, revise, and polish a final GNA document. Target: November 13.
Please keep in mind that the GNA is only one leg of the stool and will address community relations. The other two legs of the stool—zoning approval and licensing—will address the City’s regulatory oversight.
Both are very important elements to making this successful but not the topic of this email so I won’t go into detail here.
Have a good weekend, and an early L’shanah Tovah to all who will be celebrating!
Jonathan Nieuwsma
Councilmember, 4th Ward
jnieuwsma@cityofevanston.org
www.cityofevanston.org
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