Evanston’s Animal Welfare Board Chair Kristi Bachmann said the fight for a new animal shelter has lasted four years, culminating in plans for a new $6.3 million dollar shelter are expected to reach City Council in October.
The Animal Welfare Board wrote a letter to Mayor Daniel Biss and City Council on Tuesday to support the new shelter and questioned the current facility’s viability moving forward.
“The current building is not American Disabilities Act compliant. The heating, ventilation and air conditioning system is unreliable, it has broken down over the hottest days of the summer, which poses a great risk to both the animals and the humans inside,” the letter reads. “There is no fire suppression system in the building (and) most of the animals are housed in areas that were not originally intended for animal housing.”
During the Tuesday meeting, Bachmann said city officials have known about these concerns and its repercussions for years. Bachmann said the building has outgrown its original need and isn’t comparable to neighboring shelters, such as the Anti-Cruelty Society.
The current facility was built in 1987 as a dog pound but was later transformed into a full-service animal shelter housing cats and dogs, according to a report sent to Land Use Commission members by Evanston Planner Katie Ashbaugh.
If the project gets approved, the current facility would be demolished, Ashbaugh’s report states. A new 8,810-square-foot one-story animal shelter would take its place alongside increased parking options.
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The Evanston Animal Shelter Association plans on holding a funding campaign to raise $1 million toward the project, Bachmann said. This would join a $2 million grant received from Cook County in 2020 — Evanston originally requested $4.3 million from the grant but its full wishes were not granted. The city would contribute the project’s remaining $3.3 million.
A public hearing regarding the new shelter was scheduled for the Sept. 28 Land Use Commission meeting but it was canceled due to a quorum not being met, possibly impacting the project’s trajectory.
The plan was originally expected to reach the City Council at its Oct. 10 meeting said City Architect Shane Cary. He said the project could now be pushed back to the City Council’s Oct. 24 agenda.
The animal shelter has housed up to 650 animals per year in recent years, Evanston Animal Shelter Association Executive Direction Vicky Pasenko said. Pasenko said the shelter has accommodated this number by incorporating more service programs to keep animals out of the facility.
“We’ve implemented a number of human-animal social service programs that have helped bring that number down … because that’s way too many animals for this building,” Pasenko said. “We feel strongly that the best place for an animal to be is in their current home where they’re already happy and loved.”
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These programs include the shelter giving away 20,000 to 34,000 pounds of food per year and finding short-term pet housing options for families experiencing housing insecurity or domestic violence situations, she said.
Corey Schmidt is a freelance reporter with Pioneer Press.