The Oak Park Village Board advanced the Opticos Design zoning report on July 28, by authorizing staff to refer the missing-middle housing recommendations to the Plan Commission. The action moves the initiative forward to public hearings without enacting final code changes yet.
Opticos’ design can be found at EngageOakPark.com/Shape. As an approximately 80-year resident of Oak Park and a 53-year owner of what used to be a single-family home, I have read the entire report. It has a lot of technical jargon as would be expected from a report recommending a step-by-step change to Oak Park’s complex housing zoning.
I now live in a single-unit dwelling unit close to Beye School on a block consisting of other single-unit dwelling units and two-unit dwellings. Our block would be re-zoned Residential N-2. That means that any “complying lot” in our area could now have a 4-unit dwelling built on it that was 3 stories tall, not to exceed 35 feet. However, the “Notes for Table 4-1” state:
“In the N-2 and N-3 Districts, zoning lots that are at least 50 feet wide and 125 feet deep may contain up to six dwelling units, provided the development complies with all applicable bulk, setback, design, and site development standards,” which the Opticos report has considerably shortened and narrowed.
My lot is 50 by 171 feet. My dwelling was built before 1890 and is a very well maintained Victorian dwelling unit. In the past, the village would have encouraged a buyer of my dwelling to maintain and even possibly improve my dwelling through renovations.
However, the village board unanimously voted to send the zoning report to the Plan Commission, thus supporting the idea that whoever buys my dwelling, or any of the surrounding dwellings with the same lot size, should build one or more six-flats on our block.
Along with these six-flats would come up to 12 cars for the residents of the six-flats, which would have to be parked on the street. The Opticos report has not ignored this fact and states: “Overnight permit parking is available in designated multifamily areas and other limited locations. The Strategic Vision for Housing previously identified the overnight parking regulations as an issue warranting review.”
So it appears the Village Board is basically planning to eliminate overnight parking wherever a developer decides to build a four- or six-unit dwelling in what used to be single-family zoned housing.
The Opticos report goes on to state: “Historic districts cover a significant portion of Oak Park, including several larger lots that may be able to accommodate additional housing, as well as properties with more modest or newer homes that may not be central to the village’s preservation goals.”
What does this mean? How about putting a nice 8-unit dwelling on the south end of the Cheney Mansion, and replace all those useless flowers with affordable housing? The above statement also recommends slicing up all the historic district properties and building 4-, 6-, and 8-unit dwellings between each of those historic buildings.
And our village president and all our trustees say none of these changes will affect the basic character of what makes Oak Park such a wonderful place to live.
Alan Krause is an Oak Park resident.