Oak Park staff will study the impact that Oak Park’s historic districts have on construction in connection with village leaders push to encourage more residential development.
Village staff agreed last week to perform a study comparing the amount of building permits issued for projects inside and outside of the village’s historic districts. The study will look to show whether or not red tape tied to the historic districts has had a chilling effect on development.
Trustees Derek Eder and Cory Wesely sponsored a motion requesting the study. The motion comes after the board heard from members of the village’s volunteer Historic Preservation Commission last month.
“That led to many more questions, so I’m coming at this from the perspective of wanting to learn more,” Eder said. “I’m not against historic districts or historic preservation, they serve an important function of maintaining ourlandmarks and history. But just like any policy tool, they can be dialed too much in one direction or another. I want to use as much data as we can to understand how these districts have been impacting our village.”
“We’re looking to follow the data, if we find that the districts have no impact that’s great too.”
Village Manager Kevin Jackson said that the work to deliver the study will be fairly straightforward for village staff. Results of the study are expected to come back before the board later this month.
“We understand the request and we believe it can be completed in the next three weeks or so,” Jackson said.
Much of the village’s land falls in one of the three historic districts — The Frank Lloyd Wright Historic District, the Gunderson Historic District and the Ridgeland Historic District. Wesley has previously been critical of the districts’ impact on development in the village.
There is an extra bureaucratic administrative process associated with obtaining building permits in the historic district. Projects in historic districts that need village approval include changes of the exterior appearance of any building, construction of any new building and Relocation or demolition of any building, structure, site, object, or improvement
Oak Park’s 11-member Historic Preservation Commission sometimes reviews building permit applications for exterior alterations, additions, new construction and full or partial demolition of properties located within the historic districts or at designated historic landmarks, according to the village. But 95% of projects are approved by village staff without commission involvement, according to village documents.
Two former members of the HPC recently resigned after the village board overruled the commission’s decisions on plans to build a high-rise apartment building adjacent to the historic Arcade Building on Lake Street.