Village limits landlord options on Oak Park Avenue block

Tuesday, February 7th, 2012 10:00 PM

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One of the vacant storefronts along the 100 South block of Oak Park Avenue.
Graham Johnston/Staff

By Marty Stempniak

Staff Reporter

Village hall plans to limit who can rent a first-floor storefront along part of Oak Park Avenue, hoping to encourage retailers to occupy the one-block stretch.

Trustees voted 5-1 Monday to place new zoning restrictions on the 100 block of South Oak Park Avenue, just south of the Green Line, up to Pleasant Street. As such, dentists, nail salons and day care centers won't be allowed to set up shop there in the future without asking for a zoning change.

Property owners griped to the Oak Park Plan Commission last year about the proposed changes, worried that they would lead to more difficulty in renting storefronts. But the plan commission disagreed, recommending that the new rules be put in place.

Oak Park applied the same rules to the 100 block of North Oak Park Avenue back in 2007, but decided then against doing the same just south because of the service-oriented makeup of that area. Commissioners changed their mind this time around, with more interest in the street, and some non-retail uses in the works, such as a new township senior center.

"Maybe that's not quite what we want to see in the future," said chairwoman Linda Bolte. "We want to see that retail enhanced more, and we definitely don't want more offices at the street level."

Trustee John Hedges voted no, arguing that most of the block is already offices, including the home of Wednesday Journal. About 25 percent of the tenants along 100 South Oak Park Avenue would be considered "nonconforming" uses and would be grandfathered into the new rules. If those tenants ever left, the zoning switch wouldn't kick in for those spaces, unless they sat unoccupied for a year.

Meanwhile, trustees deadlocked, 3-3, on whether to place the same zoning changes on the 100 block of South Marion. Oak Park just invested $5.4 million to deck the block out in brick streets and bluestone sidewalks and wants to encourage retailers to locate there.

But some 50 percent of first-floor retail space on South Marion wouldn't comply with the zoning changes, and the plan commission rejected applying such rules on the rehabbed block in a 4-3 vote. Village staffers disagreed, encouraging trustees to overturn the commission's decision.

The village board plans to reconvene at a future meeting to revote, as Colette Lueck was absent Monday. Overturning the commission's recommendation would require a 5-2 vote.