Ryan Nero, commissioner of public health and safety, once again called for the village’s residential zoning code updates to be put back on a council agenda at the April 28 meeting.
“Whether you like the way the zoning was presented or not does not matter,” Nero said. “It is holding back projects in town that will generate revenue that helps to support the services that you like. That’s real. Arguing over this, that, the other thing, is not.”
Forest Park commissioners were presented with changes to Title 9, Chapter 3 of the village’s zoning code at a council meeting last October. With unanswered questions about amendments to the village’s R1, R2 and R3 zoning districts – low, medium and high-density residential areas, respectively – and how that would affect density and stormwater management, commissioners voted to table the vote approving the updated code. Over six months later, there’s been no movement on changes to the code.
Jessica Voogd, public property commissioner, said at the April 14 village council meeting that her questions about the code changes remain unanswered.
“I have some very specific questions and requests, and I don’t feel like those have been met over the past few months,” Voogd said. She called for community outreach to educate and get feedback from residents about potential changes to residential zoning and how that would impact issues of stormwater management.
“We’re kind of languishing here, and we should bring it back and have that conversation. But I still do have two concerns,” Voogd added. She said she’s specifically worried about the proposed changes in lot coverage and minimum lot sizes in R2 and R3 zones, saying they could potentially increase density and affect flooding in Forest Park.
The new code proposes that R3 districts can have 80% lot coverage, instead of the current code’s 40%. The proposed code also defines no minimum setback to the front, side or rear of an R3 property.
Residential zoning code updates would also increase maximum impervious lot coverage in the R1 low-density residential district from 40% to 50% to reflect the village’s current land use practices – an area that’s no bigger than a two-car garage.
And in the current version of the village code, two-family dwellings can be in R2 and R3. The updated code would allow them in R1.
This would bring into conformity and eliminate future zoning relief for 673 houses in Forest Park that were built on 25-foot lots. While these properties started as single-family homes, many became two-flats during World War II, when workers who came to Forest Park to build torpedoes at a factory on Roosevelt Road were put up in local residences.
Steve Glinke, the village’s director of health and safety, told the Review that bringing these properties into compliance with the zoning code would help home and business owners make improvements on their properties, contribute to local GDP and increase property values in Forest Park, facilitating future development throughout the village.
While including two-family houses in R1 districts might encourage single-family homeowners to add a dwelling on their property, Glinke said at the October council meeting that this isn’t likely. He added that the most probable applications would be for a homeowner to rent out their basement as a second dwelling, 90% of which have ceilings of less than 8 feet tall.
Plus, a new zoning code wouldn’t necessarily make it possible for all single-family dwellings to convert to two-flats, or all future R3 developments to cover 80% of the lot or have zero setbacks. New construction will still have to go through the permitting process, which requires a grading plan or engineering assessment to determine where stormwater drains on the property, according to Glinke.
“After the council makes their recommendation, there’s a whole new set of hoops to jump through in terms of the building code,” Glinke told the Review.
Building code assessments aside, Glinke said stormwater management has more to do with best engineering practices throughout the village as a whole, rather than on a lot-by-lot basis.
Glinke said, 40 years ago, when it rained an inch in Forest Park, everybody’s basement flooded. Now, he gets virtually no complaints about flooding. He chalks that up to block-long repairs to water infrastructure and sewers, and at least 15 years of public flood grants that finance homeowners who want to install check valves on their properties.
“If we need some kind of stormwater ordinance, that’s fine, but it has no place in the zoning code,” Glinke told the Review. “Zoning is not something that should be looked at in a vacuum. Zoning is about building community.”
What’s next?
It’s difficult to identify exactly who is responsible for the next step in the residential zoning code updates.
“I don’t know that everyone has had their concerns met,” Mayor Rory Hoskins told the Review. “Procedurally, it requires the same commissioners who voted to table it to bring [it back].”
Voogd moved to table the vote at the October council meeting, and Commissioner Michelle Melin-Rogovin seconded the motion. Commissioner Maria Maxham said she’d vote to support the code changes but agreed to table the vote. Nero voted to pass the updates.
In his commissioner’s comment April 28, Nero said the code amendments can’t come off the table until they’re voted off. But that can’t happen until the updates come onto the council agenda again.
“I just ask, please, please, at the next meeting, I’m not saying we’re going to vote on it, Mayor, but if we could just have it as old business so it could come off the table,” Nero pleaded. He added that commissioners could figure out together what the path forward is, whether that’s engaging the community about their thoughts or having additional discussion.
“I know that I have shared my questions and concerns, and provided some reference materials to explain my concerns, but I haven’t received an update,” Voogd told the Review earlier this month about concerns regarding flooding and what local feedback might be to a potential change in residential density.
Late last year, Village Administrator Rachell Entler reached out to the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago to see how its water management ordinance aligned with any changes an updated code would make to stormwater management. She said she still hasn’t yet gotten an answer from MWRD.
Glinke said he has gotten no negative feedback from residents after holding three public meetings last year with the Planning and Zoning Commission, which recommended that the village council approve the residential zoning updates.
Although no residents shared public comments at those meetings, there have been about five complaints at village council meetings since – including multiple from Forest Park resident Thomas Kovac.
“I am absolutely, strongly opposed to the proposal to amend the zoning code for the three residential districts,” Kovac said at an October council meeting. He called the amendments “hideous” and “horrible,” saying those living next to R3 districts could experience the construction of 60-foot-high buildings with no minimum setback from the property line.
“There’s very little R3 in Forest Park,” Glinke told the Review. Most of Forest Park has an R1 zoning designation, and most of the R2 district is in the village’s northeast corner.
“That’s so tightly built, you’d have to assemble properties and demolish them. There’s no market for that,” Glinke told the Review of that R2 section. “We just don’t have the scale that I think people are imagining in terms of available land.”
During her commissioner’s comment at the April council meeting, Melin-Rogovin said she recently asked Nero and Glinke additional questions about zoning code changes.
“That was helpful for me to understand how the process works now and what would change,” Melin-Rogovin told the Review about the zoning code’s background and information she received about the role of the village’s engineers. “Director Glinke’s experience and knowledge is a very important asset to the village.”
“These conversations are an important part of how we help each other understand where we’re coming from and how we need to work together to make decisions as a group,” Melin-Rogovin added. “In order to come together, we have to make sure that we have a basis of understanding. I’ve been trying to make sure I’ve done my part of facilitating that basis of understanding.”
Hoskins told the Review that he’ll put the zoning code updates back on the agenda once all the commissioners weigh in on what they want to do.
Melin-Rogovin said she’s ready for the code to be reintroduced to the village council as a whole.
“There are things that we’re still talking about, but I think the rest of the conversation will happen at the council meeting,” Melin-Rogovin told the Review. “To me, the next step is to have the council meeting.”
