Our zoning debate will divide us — because the stakes are real, and that is OK. [Our zoning debate should not divide us, Viewpoints, Sept. 2]
First, the claim that we need multi-unit housing to be “diverse” is simply not true. There is no evidence that a single-family home is somehow anti-diverse. My own immediate neighbors are Belgian, English, Jewish, Black, interracial, Indian, white, same-sex, Hispanic, and more. That is not an accident — Oak Park is roughly 19.5% Black, well above the national (~12%) and Illinois (~14%) averages, and one of the most deliberately integrated communities in the country. Diversity is not something our current homes prevent; it is something they already deliver.
The village’s own staff confirms it. Its 2026 study found no significant difference in diversity between Oak Park’s three historic districts — the most development-restricted parts of town — and the non-historic districts in Oak Park. Our most restricted, most single-family neighborhoods are every bit as diverse as the rest. Density did not integrate Oak Park; restricting it did nothing to prevent it.
Second, upzoning does not create affordability — it erodes it. The first homes a developer demolishes are the most affordable ones because it pencils out far better to put four units on a $300,000 lot than on a $1 million lot. Naturally affordable older homes are replaced by pricier new construction, shrinking the existing affordable stock. Adding density doesn’t lower the cost of living here; it changes who profits from the teardown.
Third, and most important: the thing crushing affordability isn’t the price of houses — it’s the taxes. Young and moderate-income families can often afford the mortgage here. What they cannot afford are the property taxes — more than double the national average, and three to four times the rate in low-tax states like Georgia and Virginia. In Oak Park, the property-tax bill alone can equal what a family in much of the country pays for an entire mortgage, and it rose roughly 12% in the last year alone. No amount of new construction fixes that. If anything, a village this deep in debt, with pension obligations it cannot credibly fund, will lean harder on the same shrinking base of homeowners.
Even setting all of that aside, there is a deeper problem. The proposal asks residents to risk the life savings they’ve built in their single largest asset so that officials can pursue an abstract goal of being even more diverse. And notice whom our officials represent in doing this: not the constituents who elected them, but the hypothetical residents they hope will live here someday. I don’t recall that being the mission of representative government.
Consider the contradiction. The village will direct a reported seven-figure sum to one private home — the Percy Julian house, rightly a landmark — on lots its own proposed rules would let hold a dozen units. When it chooses, it knows a home is worth more than its density. So do the rest of us.
This discussion will divide us. That’s what discussions about people’s homes, savings, and taxes inevitably do — and that is OK.
Charles Melcher
Oak Park
Diversity figures: Oak Park ~19.5% Black vs. ~12% national and ~14% Illinois.
• Neilsberg — Oak Park, IL Population by Race
• Neilsberg — Illinois Population by Race
• Neilsberg — United States Population by Race
• (All drawn from U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2019–2023 5-Year estimates
Village staff study (historic vs. non-historic districts). No significant difference in diversity/permitting between the three historic districts and the rest of town.
• Village of Oak Park staff memo, “Historic vs. Non-Historic Districts” (May 8, 2026, PDF) — the primary source
• Wednesday Journal — “Historic District red tape has little impact on permits, diversity, says village”
Percy Julian home — $1M and private ownership. Village directed a seven-figure sum ($1M) to the privately-owned Percy Julian house.
• Wednesday Journal — “Oak Park approves $1M for Percy Julian home in 2025 budget”
Zoning proposal (6 units/5,000 sq ft; no historic exemption). Proposed rules would allow up to 6 units on lots as small as 5,000 sq ft, with no carve-out for historic districts.
• Shape Oak Park — Engage Oak Park (village) — confirms new density applies uniformly, historic districts not exempted; HPC review of new construction is advisory only
• Shape Oak Park — proposed zoning map (look up any address)
• Wednesday Journal — “Shape Oak Park needs to shape up” (Grant Johnsey) — cites the Article 8 provision allowing 6 units on 5,000 sq ft lots
Property-tax rates: More than double the national average; 3-4x low-tax states like Georgia and Virginia.
• Effective Property Tax Rates by State, 2025 (2024 data) — Illinois 1.79%, Georgia 0.77%, Virginia 0.75%, U.S. avg. ~0.86–1%
• The Motley Fool — Property Taxes by State — notes Illinois counties reaching ~2.5%; Oak Park’s effective rate (~2.3-2.8%) puts it 3-4x GA/VA