A billboard could go up on the west side of Concordia Cemetery soon.
Forest Park’s Planning and Zoning Commission will hold its monthly meeting — though there haven’t been any in over a year — on March 16 at 7 p.m. That’s when Concordia Cemetery will request a map amendment, plat of subdivision and a special use permit to put a billboard on the west side of the cemetery. If the PZC approves the request, the village council will vote on it next.
Concordia needs a special use permit because the village code only approves billboards in industrial districts, and the cemetery is zoned as a residential property.
Because the cemetery neighbors the industrially zoned, CTA-owned property where the Forest Park Blue Line station is, Concordia is also asking for a plat of subdivision. This would carve out the part of the cemetery where the billboard would sit and permit it for special use, which couldn’t be done if the property wasn’t next to an industrially zoned plot.
Steve Glinke, head of the village’s building department, said that, in his 15 years in the role, he’s never had a subdivision case for a for-profit entity, like Concordia Cemetery. He added that the Des Plaines River is eroding the cemetery’s bank, and Concordia has to pay to fix it themselves.
There are currently three billboards in Forest Park — one on the property of the Park District of Forest Park, one on village-owned property at I-290 and Hannah, and one on the U-Haul lot at Harlem and Harrison.
While PZC meetings are scheduled for the third Monday of every month, if no businesses or residents petition, a meeting is not held. The last PZC meeting was over a year ago, according to Glinke.
The PZC meeting will be March 16 at 7 p.m. in the lower level of Village Hall, 517 Des Plaines Ave. The virtual meeting will be streamed at https://www.forestpark.net/dfp/government/local-government/commissions-boards-committees/zoning-board-of-appeals/
