The matter of single-family zoning should not be changed by the Oak Park Village Board. If it is to be changed, it should be changed by referendum. Those residents currently living in houses in single-family zoned areas paid for their houses with the understanding that the zoning in the area would be single family.
If this is changed, they stand to lose a substantial amount of value in their houses and in their quality of life. Therefore, the board should not be making such a decision; the residents are entitled to be those to consider the matter and vote upon it. Further, it should be put to a vote at a time when voter turnout is high, by which I mean when U.S. Congressional seats are being contested.
The loss of quality of life will be substantial, with loss of open space, trees, plants, parkland, etc., and the damage to the environment will also be severe. Wildlife habitat will be lost. With global warming underway, temperatures already at a point with triple digit temperatures not uncommon, this increase in development will cause local temperatures to get even worse with the loss of shade tree canopy caused by an increase in development not anticipated by current residents when they bought their houses.
Instead of voting on this matter on July 28, I suggest you vote on a different matter. Vote on a regulation that requires full disclosure of financial involvement with all developers of housing within Cook County. Residents have a right to know what profits members of the current board may be receiving if they were to remove the single-family housing zoning in Oak Park. Similar disclosure should be required of all future candidates for office on the village board. Given the potential of huge losses of residents in single family housing zoned areas, I suspect that such residents may want to bring a lawsuit against the village board, and will have an interest in such disclosure which would strengthen their claims in court.
From the beginning, Oak Park has had houses of different sizes available on every block to ensure that people of varying income and economic status will live together in the same communities. Your idea that allowing developers to have free rein to tear down single-family houses and replace them with apartment buildings will not help integrate people of different races in this village. You are using a phony argument to justify your efforts to support developers at the expense of current and future residents.
Priscilla Hensel
Oak Park