In Forest Park, there’s a longtime business owner with a store located in a residential neighborhood. The business owner wants to expand the building’s footprint on the lot, according to Steve Glinke, director of the Department of Public Health and Safety. But according to the village’s zoning code, such an addition is “an absolute, hard no,” Glinke said.
In this example and numerous others, the way the village’s zoning code is written can limit property owners’ investments in Forest Park. That’s why, at the start of the year, officials began drafting updates to large portions of Forest Park’s zoning code.
“This sort of sets the table for something that’s a little bit more manageable and provides opportunity for residents, business owners to make improvements to their property,” Glinke said.
While the first suggested changes to the zoning code’s residential districts have yet to be approved by the village council, Forest Park officials say the goal is much larger than bringing hundreds of nonconforming properties in line with the code.
“It’s not just zoning,” Glinke said. “It’s managing growth and doing things in a way that provides safeguards, but also directly provides benefits to the neighborhoods and the community at large.”
The new zoning code
Village officials and the village’s planning services consultant Muse have been considering how to update the village’s code since 2018.
This year, village staff and Muse started rewriting batches of the code, which are then reviewed by the planning and zoning commission. If the commission approves the zoning code updates, they’re sent to a village council vote.
These groups will remain involved in future updates, as well as in assessing case-by-case properties that don’t align with the zoning code.
While staff originally hoped to have the zoning code updates completed by the end of this year, they say it’s taken so long because of the project’s scale. But there have also been delays in the village council’s vote to update the zoning code.
The planning commission approved the first batch of the zoning code’s updates, which suggested amendments to the village’s residential districts, in April after two public meetings in February and March.
But when the vote came to the village council, commissioners tabled the vote. While Commissioner of Accounts and Finance Maria Maxham reluctantly agreed to come back to the agenda item at a later meeting, Commissioner of Public Property Jessica Voogd and Commissioner of Streets and Public Improvements Michelle Melin-Rogovin wondered how the residential code updates would impact stormwater management and building density.
Village Administrator Rachell Entler said she’s still researching how to answer those questions. She’s comparing hypothetical stormwater management updates in the code to MWRD’s water management ordinance and needs more feedback about building density questions from commissioners.
Once those questions are addressed, this portion of the code may go back to the commission, or the village council might make a simple amendment at a future meeting. Entler said that while everyone on the village council is on board with the code updates, some want more detail.
“I don’t want anything that we add in there to be an additional burden on somebody who has property in town, or is looking to buy property in town, that they have to abide by stricter rules than what the county and MWRD [Metropolitan Water Reclamation District] is telling us,” Entler said. “If we’re going to do that, I want it to be for a valid reason.”
At the same village council meeting where commissioners voted to update the residential portion of the code, they passed an amendment that addresses parking, changing the required number of parking spaces per every multi-family dwelling from two to 1.25.
“The 1.25 is more reflective of what the reality is,” Glinke said.
Glinke said those who are constructing apartment buildings in Forest Park often ask for relief from the section of the code that dictates how many parking spaces they must include.
“They’re always granted,” Glinke said.
Entler said she is working on answering questions about the tabled portion of the residential zoning updates alongside redoing other batches of the code.
While the first batch has taken nearly all year to bring to the village council for a tabled vote, Glinke said later portions of the code should take much less time.
“We took the purposeful tact of being slow rolling [during] this first batch because it affects the most residents,” he said.
What comes next
Residents at previous village council meetings have complained during public comment about the lack of transparency behind the process of updating the code.
Michelle Fitz-Henry said at a village council meeting last month that there are no video recordings or minutes of the three commission meetings earlier this year where board members discussed and approved the residential zoning code updates.
“Something’s broken here,” Fitz-Henry said. “This process doesn’t only not scream public and transparent, it doesn’t even whisper it.”
But staff are unsure how the process could be any more transparent. This year’s three planning commission meetings regarding the residential zoning updates were advertised publicly – on the village’s website and email newsletter.
Entler said she is updating the village’s recording system so that staff can record all public meetings, not just village council ones – another complaint from locals who can’t make it to in-person meetings.
“I do think that there is some responsibility of residents to pay attention to what is going on in town,” Entler said.
“Civic participation shouldn’t be a heavy lift,” Glinke added. “It’s our job to help that process and to educate our residents here, but it requires a modicum of effort.”
Glinke said the next code amendment will address the rest of the nonconforming properties in Forest Park. Another will create a zoning designation for cemeteries, which take up half of the village’s land mass and are currently zoned as either residential or industrial districts.
While Glinke expects most of the code’s updates to be voted on by the village council next year, he added that such changes will be an ongoing process.
“I still think people will be coming forward with things that none of us thought about,” he said.