City of Evanston Zoning

Founded in 1863, Evanston is located immediately north of Chicago along Lake Michigan with a thriving, diverse community of just under 75,000 people within roughly eight square miles.

To regulate the use and development intensity of land, Evanston employs 30 zoning districts, two overlay districts, and four historic districts. Since 1921, when land within the city was first placed into one of five districts, the city has relied on black-and-white, hand-drawn maps to display this important information. Today, Evanston's GIS provides many advantages. Boundaries are more precise, color communicates a hierarchy of land use, and map updates and the production of a new map take a fraction of the time. This map is an official document of the Zoning Ordinance of the City of Evanston.

The Zoning map is used by a number of people in a number of ways. Residents may use the map as a starting point to determine whether a proposed addition to their home meets city code. Developers use the map to evaluate the development potential of parcels they may be interested in acquiring. City staff use the map to evaluate the impact of policy decisions at the local, neighborhood, and citywide levels.

The Zoning map is available in several formats including 26" x 26" plots, 36" x 36" plots, and PDF downloads from the city's Web site. In addition, an ArcIMS application provides an interactive map utilizing similar layers and symbology. The Zoning map contains more than 12 geographic layers completely maintained by the GIS Division and stored as ArcSDE feature classes including tax parcels, building footprints, wards, historic districts, and various annotation layers. It represents a collaborative effort between the GIS Division and the Zoning Division. The Evanston GIS Division supports all other city departments with data, maps, Web applications, and geographic analysis.