What does the elimination of single-family zoning mean? It would allow a builder/developer to convert any home in Oak Park to a multifamily dwelling without restriction. This would apply to the whole of Oak Park. The home next to yours could be purchased by a builder and be converted into 2, 3, or more apartments/condominiums. Multiple homes could be built on a single lot.
Oak Park offers a broad diversity of housing options that exceeds that of most municipalities. It possesses various sizes of rental properties, condo units, and multi- and single-family homes. Each of these housing types are within easy access to public transit and public amenities. Oak Park possesses what modern city planning models set out to deliver: diversity of housing types to meet the needs of a diverse community organized around transit and public amenities with various densities.
I moved to Oak Park 30 years ago. Through life changes, affordability needs, and a growing family, Oak Park offered appropriate housing options. We began with a one-bedroom apartment, then rented in a two-flat, owned a vintage condo, purchased and renovated a single-family house, and now own a larger house near OPRF High School. Not many communities can deliver this as well as Oak Park.
Oak Park is a community with significant architectural history and character. Our village is an architectural destination. The removal of single-family zoning will compromise its architectural character. The Permit and Development Division has some architectural aesthetic oversight, but not enough to control the character change that the removal of single-family zoning would create.
Additionally, a burden will be put on the village to provide the necessary services for the density referred to in the language of the zoning change study (potential increase of up to 90,000 population). The schools are currently at capacity, requiring expansions and affecting taxpayers. The current parking issue will be exacerbated. The police force is understaffed for the current population. Significantly increasing population density would dramatically affect municipal services.
Even with this proposal, the property taxes and cost of housing for residents would still be high compared to adjacent communities. Oak Park would continue to out-price many potential residents (unless the village is going to subsidize occupants’ taxes!). The proposed zoning change also does not effectively solve the affordable housing access issues that its proponents represent.
The community has protested multiple condo/apartment developments over the years. The proposal to eliminate single-family zoning would bring drastically more negative change to Oak Park than any single structure that has been proposed. What the village is proposing is unconstrained density rather than practical density.
The elimination of single-family zoning will lead to a substantial disjunction in the functional and architectural character of the village. It will add density that the community is not suited to manage.
As residents of Oak Park we are part of a legacy. Eliminating single-family zoning will not serve future inhabitants and the legacy of the village in a sustainable and practical manner.
Jeffrey Roberts, architect and design professional, is a 30-year resident of Oak Park.
