Area plans focus in on smaller geographic units of the city in order to address their unique planning issues. Area plans include five neighborhood plans and the Plan for Downtown Evanston. Their results were the following area planning documents, all of which have been adopted by the City Council including:

• Downtown Plan
• North Downtown Planning
• West Evanston Master Plan
• Canal-Green Bay Road/Ridge Avenue-Church Street Study
• Central Street Corridor Plan
  
• Chicago Ave. Corridor Plan
  
• Lakefront Master Plan
  
• Southeast Evanston Comprehensive Neighborhood Plan
• Full Circle Report
• Evanston Community Foundation's Report on Fine Arts in Evanston
• Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) Resident Survey (RTA)
• Main Street Station TOD Study
• 2017 Evanston Transit Oriented Development (TOD) Parking Study