By Bob Seidenberg
A City Council committee on Monday night shot down a request from a couple to make a single-family residence on the 2200 block of Grey Avenue into an all-year vacation rental, siding with a group of residents who argued it would have negative effects.
The Planning and Development Committee voted 5-0 against the request of applicant Jeremey Giltner, of Northbrook, to grant the home at 2222 Grey Ave., a full time vacation rental license, block it from moving forward to the full council.
Committee members didn’t shut the door completely to the idea, but spoke to the need for a city policy on the issue. In discussion, Councilmember Bobby Burns (5th Ward) told Laurie Jacobs, Giltner’s domestic partner who manages the property, “I don’t think you’re doing anything wrong here.”
“I think on the city side we have just not had enough conversation about under what circumstances this body would support vacation rentals,” Burns said.
“I think it is easier to support something that doesn’t have really any pushback in the community, as opposed to one that does,” he said, referring to earlier comments from neighboring residents.
Giltner, who was unable to attend the meeting because of a previous business commitment, wrote in a letter to the city that the couple had originally applied for an owner-occupied vacation rental license last May after closing on the home.
The couple was now applying to renew their license, but without occupying it themselves, as medical issues and financial matters changed their plans to live at Grey.
“The Airbnb is incredibly well-run, kept in pristine condition, and has exceptional reviews,” Giltner wrote in his cover letter in support of his request.
He also submitted documentation attesting that 15 nearby residents and their families were in support or had no issue with the Airbnb.
No desire for ‘a motel in my neighborhood’
But the majority of residents who spoke on the application during public comment urged the committee to reject the request.
(Another application on the committee’s agenda, for a vacation rental at 1813 Lincoln St., advanced without any opposition from community members and was later approved by the full City Council.)
Carol Nielsen, who has lived less than 250 feet from the house at the corner of Grey and Noyes Street for 45 years, told the committee members, “I don’t want a motel in my neighborhood.”
Nielsen noted in her letter to the city that the house was owner-occupied for many years before being sold a couple of times and was used as a long-term rental.
“It is fine as a rental property, but not as a B & B [bed and breakfast] rental,” she wrote.
She maintained that Jacobs and her partner Giltner do not live in the house and have rarely stayed there.
“With a strong push for affordable housing in Evanston,” she said, “I am puzzled as to why the use of this house as a full-time vacation rental contributes to the goal of maintaining options for affordable housing.
“If houses such as these are turned into neighborhood motels, then the possibility of affordable housing stock is effectively reduced,” she argued.
Melinda Shanklin, another longtime resident at the corner of Noyes and Grey, also spoke against the change.
“I moved to Evanston because it is, in fact, a neighborhood,” she told committee members. “I love the fact that is a neighborhood. I didn’t move closer to apartment buildings, I didn’t move to a more transient neighborhood. I moved to where I currently live because it is a neighborhood.”
She also expressed the concern about affordable housing, noting that the house had sold for $300,000 — an affordable price by Evanston standards.
“Now you’re going to make it a vacation rental,” she told committee members. “There is no shortage of hotels in Evanston, so I’m not sure why that is.”
Debby Cryer, a resident of the 2100 block of Grant Street across the alley from the proposed vacation rental, was the lone resident speaking in support.
“It’s been an Airbnb for a year now, and there have been absolutely no problems whatsoever,” she said.
She would prefer the proposed use to that of the property just being used as a long-term rental, she said.
“And this is a selfish preference, because I know I’ve lived in places where we’ve had [long-term] rentals right next door to us before, and some of them have been absolutely awful and you can’t get rid of them,” she said. “And so it’s great when they’re [occupants] there for a couple of days, because even if they’re bad, they’re gone.”
“The other thing I know about Airbnbs — and I’ve stayed in many of them — I’ve also stayed in lots of hotels,” Cryer added, “but Airbnbs are always very well kept. You can’t get a good price if you don’t keep it up.”
Filling a need?
Jacobs, the applicant’s partner, also responded to criticism leveled by neighbors at the meeting.
“The Airbnb is incredibly well-run,” she said. “It’s in pristine condition.”
She pointed to the documentation she and Giltner submitted from 15 neighbors and their families, stating that they never had any issues with the residence’s guests.
“The majority of the guests are family members of local Evanston residents, followed by people who used to live in Evanston and want to come back to visit,” she said. “The majority of the other guests either visit adult children at Northwestern, or live locally and need somewhere to stay during home renovations and moves.”
Giltner, a scientific project manager working in clinical research, wrote in his letter that he initially bought the property from Jacob’s landlord.
“She loves the town, the neighborhood and the house too,” he noted. “She knows all the neighbors and their dogs!”
He said that his original plan was for him and Jacobs to live at the house while he was renovating his house in Northbrook. They initially decided to pursue a part-time Airbnb license initially to fill in the gaps when the couple couldn’t be together due to his increasing work schedule.
“It is not only efficient and helps defray the cost of two homes,” he wrote, “but it also serves an unmet need for affordable short-term quality housing in Evanston.”
In discussion, Burns noted that a referral had been made for councilmembers to have a conversation on the issue, “because I think at some point we just need to communicate clearly what we’re going to support.”
A trickle-down effect
“I think we need to have that discussion so that this becomes a lot easier to make those decisions,” he said.
Councilmember Juan Geracaris (9th Ward), the current chair of the committee, acknowledged he has become “increasingly uncomfortable” about such applications as more and more have come through.
“They take perfectly beautiful homes and apartments and condos off the market, and you know, there’s a trickle-down effect in that,” Geracaris said. “We have rising housing costs. We also have schools that are under-enrolled, and we wonder why folks don’t see young families in certain neighborhoods.”
Councilmember Parielle Davis, whose Seventh Ward includes the Grey Avenue property, agreed that officials have to be judicious in deciding on such requests, and take affordable housing as a factor.
“I do think that there needs to be more clarity in the process as well,” Davis said. “But it’s easy to say no if people give us a reason, and I think that’s kind of what’s happening here.”