Oak Park is making progress towards one of the village board’s most ambitious goals.
On several occasions in recent months, multiple village trustees have spoken of a desire to eliminate the single-family only zones from Oak Park’s zoning map in an effort to create more “missing middle” housing in the village. The board took a step towards that goal at its Aug. 5 board meeting by approving a contract with Opticos Design to study what remaking Oak Park’s zoning policy will look like.
Jennifer Settle, Opticos’ Chicago office leader, is an Oak Park native, and the firm has a well-versed understanding of Oak Park through other projects it’s completed in the region, according to the group’s proposal.
“We are very familiar with the housing and zoning context and of Oak Park through our work with the Metropolitan Mayors Caucus on the 2025 Missing Middle Housing Toolkit for the Chicago Region and All Together’s recent efforts on the Explore Oak Park and Beyond campaign for Visit Oak Park,” Opticos said in its proposal. “We are mindful of the opportunity for adjustments to regulations that offer needed housing solutions and the need for thoughtful, transparent messaging to communicate these potential changes to municipal leaders and community members.”
The village will pay the group $200,000, according to village documents.
“Missing middle” housing is defined as medium-density housing “that provides diverse housing options along the spectrum of affordability, which includes duplexes, triplexes, fourplexes and bungalows,” according to the National League of Cities. In an Oak Park context, village leaders have identified a lack of multi-bedroom condos and other affordable housing types suitable for families as a gap in the village’s housing stock.
Two trustees — Cory Wesley and Brian Straw — voted against ratifying the village’s zoning code in May in protest of the inclusion of the single-family zones. While the village board is required by state law to ratify the code each year, the trustees voted ‘no’ on the map to show how much reforming the code matters to them.
Following that conversation, Village President Vicki Scaman said the board was primed to make the transformative change.
“What I’m hearing tonight is when that comes forward to us in the (Requests for Proposals) that we will be ready to act,” she said in May. “I just think that we will be a pretty amazing group to host the conversation and the sense of urgency is heard.”
Zoning was a tool used to enforce racial segregation in the North, and Oak Park’s map still reflects that legacy, Wesley said again on Tuesday.
“We’re a progressive community, we believe in racial equity, and yet we’re sitting on top of racially inequitable zoning,” he said.
The consultant group’s plan for the project hinges on a community-wide education and awareness campaign and analysis of how zoning reform will bring impact. The project has a goal to be completed in nine months, coming back before the board in spring of 2026.
Oak Park Village Manager Kevin Jackson said the project shouldn’t be rushed considering the impact it could have on the village, and the necessity of robust public engagement on the matter.
“You remember the bike plan, well multiply that by five or 10,” Jackson said.
The consultant team working on the project also includes staff from a strategic communications firm, an economic analysis firm and an urban planning firm, according to Opticos proposal.
Municipalities across the country have debated the idea of ditching single family residential zoning in efforts to address affordability and density issues.
Evanston, Oak Park’s peer in many ways, is considering eliminating single-family residential zoning as the city develops a new comprehensive plan and zoning code.
Illinois House Bill 4795 was introduced last year and would’ve banned single-family zoning in cities with populations larger than 100,000. The bill did not make it to a vote.
Opticos, which is headquartered in Berkeley, California, helped the city of Columbus, Ohio produce a new comprehensive zoning code that the city approved last year. That project, which was several years in the making, helped the sprawling state capitol open the door for nearly 90,000 new housing units to be built in targeted areas around transportation corridors according to the group.
