There seems to be a lot of confusion about what’s before the River Forest Zoning Board of Appeals tomorrow, April 11. It’s important to get the facts right.
First, the River Forest Zoning Board of Appeals is not considering rezoning. Rezoning assigns property to a different zoning district. But that’s not what is proposed. The ZBA is considering amendments to the text of the zoning ordinance, not changing the zoning districts to which any property is mapped.
The plain language in the proposed text amendment sets “maximum” heights in the three commercial districts, not minimums. In five decades as a professional city planner, I’ve never seen a zoning code that sets minimum heights — and this proposal simply does not set minimums.
Factually speaking, the proposed maximum heights of 50 and 65 feet would lead only to moderate density, mid-rise buildings that will not diminish the quality of life in River Forest. For decades, we’ve lived across the street from this kind of multifamily housing and it’s been a perfectly fine neighbor to us and the folks on Bonnie Brae immediately west of the affordable condos.
As always, there is a happy medium. I’ve suggested to the ZBA that it codify the building height as step-downs where the tallest end of a building is, for example, on Madison, and the height is reduced to the equivalent of two stories closest to single-family homes.
Most importantly, the proposed amendments, in accord with the village’s comprehensive plan and other adopted policies, would eliminate two unjustifiable, blatantly exclusionary provisions from River Forest’s zoning code by:
(1) Reducing the current requirement of 2,800 square feet of lot area per dwelling unit to 1,000 square feet, and
(2) Eliminating the unwarranted prohibition of studio apartments.
If River Forest is ever going to achieve any economic development, these two provisions need to be excised now.
The only proposed amendment that should be rejected is establishing an off-street parking requirement of 1.5 spaces per dwelling unit. The proper practice is to base the number of spaces on the number of vehicles a home is likely to generate — and, as every professional city planner knows, that’s largely derived from the number of bedrooms.
Our leaders need to exercise the leadership they were elected to provide. The village leaders responsible for the proposed text amendments need to present to the ZBA the rationale for their amendments, in person. This is not a task that should be assigned to consultants or village staff.
If both sides of the issue would set aside politics and talk respectfully with each other, perhaps we could arrive at a middle ground that would facilitate the economic development River Forest and our school districts so badly need to avoid raising property tax rates on homeowners and enable them to maintain the high standards residents expect.
Dan Lauber, AICP, is a 37-year River Forest resident and a past president of the American Planning Association and American Institute of Certified Planners.