Oak Park Trustee Derek Eder has his sights set on one main priority to focus his election campaign on: climate change.
This is not new for Eder, as his interest in local politics began with a passion for sustainability and for taking action to fight the climate crisis. He said he wants to show his children that he is actively working to make the planet a better place for them to grow up, and that the local level is one of the best places for it to be addressed.
“Climate change, it affects all of us, and we can’t escape the responsibility of doing something about it,” said Eder. “It’s what sort of motivated me to want to join the board when I was appointed last year to be that voice for climate change action on the village board, so I feel like I’ve done a good job of being that voice and advocating for more local action, more local policies.
Eder was appointed to the board in 2025 after Susan Buchanan resigned, so this is his first official campaign for the position. His seat is one of three up for election on April 6. There are currently six candidates who have announced their candidacy.
Eder, a long-time climate activist, was initially involved with Oak Park Climate Action Network where he helped create the Climate Coaches program. This helped inspire the village’s Oak Park Energy Navigator program recently launched to assist residents in understanding sustainable options for their homes.
Although multiple initiatives, policies and goals have been successfully pushed forward since Eder took office, the work is not over, he said. He said funding still remains a “huge barrier” for residents to make changes, and it is something he hopes to address in the next term with a potential loan program and giving added focus to renters in multi-unit buildings.
“Making that funding available for folks to actually make those changes is a critical way to actually accelerate the transition we’re already undergoing,” said Eder.
Eder adopts his philosophy of taking action now to many different areas of responsibility as a trustee and current decisions presented to the village board such as long-term capital improvement projects, funding plans and the Shape Oak Park’s initiative to address housing issues.
“The cost of doing nothing is you pay for it later,” said Eder. “I think there’s some folks who see the big ticket items, and they are concerned about spending. And I totally understand that concern, but we have to look at long-term, look at the data, and it shows that if we do nothing, the cost for doing nothing is actually more expensive.”
Although the proposed changes to single-family zoning is not a position he is campaigning on, it is a contentious topic that intersects with many other areas of work and something residents deeply care about.
Eder said he supports the recommendations currently being discussed, but is “open to the finer details and revising and shaping things as we hear more feedback.”
“People are scared and worried about what these changes could mean. I refuse to do nothing about it, though,” said Eder. “It is something we can set the rules, and if we set them right, and we make sure that we’re protecting what we love and cherish about Oak Park and the character of the neighborhood, we can get it right.”
He is also a strong advocate for creating a more comprehensive inclusionary housing ordinance in tandem with the zoning changes. Currently the ordinance only requires buildings with 25 or more units in specific areas of the village to reserve units for affordable housing, but he wants to lower the requirement to buildings with seven or more units throughout all of Oak Park.
Eder said he thinks his collaborative skills and data-driven mind are some of his biggest strengths for the role. Data is incredibly important to him, as a programmer by trade, and a driving factor in all of his decisions. He said he wants to work with the village to make more data readily available to residents in an effort for trust and transparency,
“We only really, oftentimes, engage with government when something’s gone wrong,” said Eder. “So more transparency, more data is something that I think that actually can help boost confidence in government in a time where, frankly, confidence in government is low.”