Ever wonder how Forest Park’s residential zoning districts were created or what local development might look like in 5 years?
Forest Parker Bob Cox is creating a free, week-long online course to discuss these topics and more through the Forest Park Zoning Challenge.
“This particular challenge is going to give you the tools to find out for yourself” about local zoning, Cox said.
Such a course feels especially relevant at a time when Forest Park staff is working to rewrite portions of the village’s zoning code – and has received backlash from a handful of residents who say staff isn’t being transparent about the process.
The e-learning course covers village planning, community development, and local zoning. The lesson plan reflects the curriculum for an AP high school class on civics, government and urban planning. And though it’s Forest Park-focused, much of the content can be applied to other municipalities.
After Cox finishes drafting the syllabus, anyone with access to a computer will be able to register for the week-long course. He’s inviting local high school students, residents, homeowners, village council members and village staff to register online in a few weeks for the first course’s start in February.
Over one week, participants will read two articles, answer a series of questions individually, then discuss them in a Zoom meeting with others. Cox said he hopes to have discussion sessions once a week – one at 6 p.m. and one at 8 p.m.
Cox said he wants as many people as possible to participate in the week-long course before drafting an analysis of his findings in March. He will submit this to village staff and is hopeful the zoning challenge will spark questions from the village council about engaging the public in the future of Forest Park’s zoning.
Cox added that, if the zoning challenge goes well, it could be reproduced or the subject of a future public meeting at Village Hall. He aims for the course to serve as a place for discussion, an aspect that’s often missing at village council meetings, where commissioners aren’t allowed to respond to residents who make public comments.
“I think it’s a really good gateway,” Cox said of the zoning challenge, “if it’s perceived well.”
Shaping the zoning challenge
Along with Cox, who has a bachelor’s degree in urban planning and public affairs, the zoning challenge has been developed by Andrew Cox, an IT and e-learning consultant and Bob’s son; Sharon Anderson Cox, Bob’s wife who’s in commercial real estate; Jesse Treviño, Cox’s neighbor who does residential real estate; Joseph Ponsetto, an attorney who specializes in municipal law; and graphic designer Lloyd Smedbron.
Cox has long had the idea to start a course like this that organizes public engagement around local zoning.
Over the last 20 years or so, Cox has gone to the village council, mayor and village administrator to pitch ideas of how to educate the public about local zoning. Though he said these discussions were well-received, the main barriers to a course like this are the village’s available resources.
If the village were to create something like the zoning challenge, it would “take a lot of time, a lot of people and some money,” Cox said.
If the village hired a consulting firm to spearhead a similar public engagement effort, it would likely be a multi-week process where panels would come in to meet with community members about their questions and thoughts, Cox said. And while they’d come away with a comprehensive analysis on public engagement and opinion, it could cost several hundred thousand dollars, he added.
Now that Cox, 70, is retired, he has time to move the needle forward for an idea that’s been stirring inside him for decades.
“You have to create a movement to change anything,” Cox said.
