After over two years of village staff trying to update Forest Park’s residential zoning code, residents and commissioners gathered for a town hall last week to discuss why the zoning changes have stalled and how proposed amendments could affect their homes.
About 30 locals met in the lower level of Village Hall on April 22. During the first half of the two-hour meeting, Steve Glinke, head of the village’s building and permitting department, outlined the reason for the residential zoning changes. Meeting attendees asked Glinke questions during the second half — some which were framed in support of the changes and others against them.
The village’s Planning and Zoning Commission recommended the village council approve the residential zoning changes in 2024. Last June, months after the village council tabled a vote on the changes, Commissioners Jessica Voogd and Rory Hoskins voted against them, and Michelle Melin-Rogovin abstained from the vote. Neither Hoskins nor Melin-Rogovin attended the April 22 town hall.
Proposed changes to the zoning code would bring about 75% of residential properties that currently don’t conform to the code into compliance. They have been grandfathered into the village code that hasn’t been rewritten in decades, creating more hoops to jump through for homeowners to renovate their properties. This has also stalled development in Forest Park, which has been strapped for cash for years and currently has a projected $15 million deficit for the current fiscal year.
Some of the biggest amendments to the residential zoning code include reducing the amount some residences must be set back from the property line and increasing the allowed percentage of lot coverage. Some residents are concerned these changes will impact stormwater drainage and density throughout town or negatively affect the aesthetics of their block.
Voogd has brought up in previous meetings, and again voiced at the town hall, that she wanted more information about what informed the recommended zoning changes.
“Was there an audit of our code? Was there an analysis of Forest Park data? Have there been studies on how these changes would impact our stormwater and water sewer infrastructure?” Voogd asked at the town hall. “Once these [code changes] are by-right, it gets a lot more enticing for a developer because they don’t have to go through the variance process.”
Glinke responded, “Don’t confuse by-right with a get-out-of-jail-free card because, if you’re going to build something 100% to the zoning metrics, you’re still going to have to go through site plan approval. There’s still going to be one or several public meetings.” For any property larger than a single-family dwelling, property owners will need site plan approval from the Planning and Zoning Commission, and single-family dwellings must submit a $1,500 civil engineering plan during the permitting process. Glinke added, “Zoning just gives you the approval to do it. The heavy lift comes at permitting.”
Resident Amy Binns-Calvey agreed with Voogd at the town hall about wanting more data. She read from an informational sheet of facts and myths that Glinke and Nero created ahead of the meeting that “lot splitting is not financially practical.” Binns-Calvey said, “I don’t have any reason to think that that might not be true for some people. … But I’m not a developer.”
Another resident requested a comprehensive report on environmental impact, instead of Glinke’s anecdotal examples in the first half of the meeting that the village has taken large-scale efforts with recent sewer separation projects to mitigate flooding. She also wanted proof that code changes will increase revenue for the village.
Glinke said he didn’t quite understand the requests for data, when he was relaying information he’s heard from experts in their field. He added that much of zoning follows best practices, and that he was parroting what village planners and engineers have told him.
“We had an award-winning, female-owned business as our planner for 8 years here, and she never talked about data points. She talked about best practices,” Glinke said. Muse quit working with the village last month, citing several stalled projects as the reason for ending the partnership. “Jim Amelio at CBBEL [the village’s engineering consultant] exercises best engineering practices. If you want me to drill down and find out what that is, I will, but I’m four years short of an engineering degree.”
“People are asking for all these data points. This is zoning, it’s not a development. It is changing the zoning code to harmonize existing development. That’s the data point I think that you’re missing,” said resident Steve Rouse, who used to practice zoning law. He added that he’s been trying to construct an accessory dwelling unit on his property for years.
“Do I need to get an environmental impact statement or parking statement, all these things, just to build a house above my garage so I can have an office?” Rouse said. “My ADU is not going to harm the sewer system, and it’s not going to overburden anything.”
But another resident shared a story of how she and her husband live in a R2-zoned district on a 50-foot lot that’s been split in two. She said, a few years ago, a developer dug up to, and underneath, her home’s lot line, and built up high enough that she couldn’t install solar panels because her neighbor’s home blocks the sunlight. Her basement didn’t flood before the construction, but now regularly does.
Glinke said earlier in the meeting that, while proposed code updates could allow for owners of 50-foot lots to hypothetically cut the lot in two and build a second home, it would be an expensive tear-down that would affect the value of the home.
“Somebody might do it, but there’s not going to be a flood of them,” Glinke said, asking the woman to speak with him after the meeting to find a solution.
Resident Scott Sanders shared public comment at the end of the meeting, as a developer who’s built about 50 single- and multi-family homes in the western suburbs, including multiple in Forest Park.
“I am a greedy developer that tore down a house in Forest Park and built a bunch,” Sanders said. “So if any of you want to talk with me about what the profit motives are, the hoops that I have to jump through with the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District, Steve [Glinke], the Planning and Zoning Commission, Courtney [from Muse] and everybody else that prevents me from doing that more in Forest Park, I would love to tell you about it because it’s not easy, and it’s not financially solvent most of the time.”