Evanston City Council Aldermen: As a resident of Evanston I urge you to vote in favor of the proposal by EBSA and AYSO to reuse the vacant Recycling Center building on Oakton St. for an Indoor Youth Sports Facility. There are four main reasons why this is the best proposal for our community: 1) There is huge demand for off-season indoor practice space. Parents are currently taking their kids out of Evanston to indoor facilities in other communities. This demand is exemplified by the fact that a partnership of youth sports leagues have banded together to propose this use in a vacant City-owned facility. 2) It would activate retail on the Oakton corridor. The additional traffic generated by such a use would generate sales at nearby businesses. When parents drop off their kids they often use this time to shop so more money would stay in Evanston. Conservative estimates show that this traffic could drive an upwards of $600,000 in sales to Evanston that is currently being spent in other communities. 3) The EBSA/AYSO proposal comes at no cost to the City. The City is struggling financially and the opportunity to create a community cultural asset at no cost and privately financed by EBSA and AYSO would be an enormous benefit to the City. 4) It would be an indoor facility for all Evanston youth. All of the youth sports leagues collaborating in this proposal (EBSA, AYSO, Evanston Lacrosse, Jr. Wildkits) offer scholarships for kids to play in their leagues. This facility would offer indoor time for all kids of Evanston to practice regardless of their ability to pay. This indoor facility would also be available for much needed indoor summer camp space. I entirely endorse this use and think it would be a legacy project that the children of Evanston would benefit from for many years to come and one that I think all Evanston residents would be proud of. I encourage your vote in support of this proposal for the vacant recycling center. Thank you.

Sponsor

Links