Communities can play a role
in rezoning Chicago
By Al Turco
Special to Inside
From Rogers Park to the little Calumet River, Mayor Richard M. Daley plans to change the landscape of Chicago, and he’s asking for everyone’s help.
Daley is overseeing the first comprehensive revision of the Chicago zoning code since 1957, and the city needs the help of neighborhood leaders to accurately apply new district designations to the streets of Chicago. The Metropolitan Planning Council (MPC) held two seminars in November to let people know what the city is doing and how the communities can and should be a part of the process.
The process
A Zoning Reform Commission, appointed by the Mayor in 2000 and co-chaired by Ald. William Banks (36th) and Museum of Science and Industry President David Mosena, is rewriting the text of the zoning code. The Commission will submit its revisions section by section to the City Council. The first section, which addresses open space and residential districts, was given to the City Council last month. The City Council will refer each section to the City Council’s Committee on Zoning, also chaired by Ald. Banks. The sections will remain in this bureaucratic holding pattern until the entire code has been revised, and then the full text will go before the City Council for a vote. The MPC predicts that the City Council will approve the full code by June 2003, completing phase one.
The MPC is a private, nonprofit group of businesses and civic leaders funded primarily by grants and donations. So for those scoring at home, the Commission is Daley’s and these folks are rewriting the code, the Committee is a de facto Daley rubber stamp not worth talking about, and the Council is not a government organization. The MPC is, however, working to facilitate cooperation between the government and the people by informing the neighborhoods of city plans and asking for community assistance in mapping the city’s phase two of the rezoning.
“The new text of the zoning code is like building blocks, but we need to decide how to arrange these blocks,” said Peter Skosey, vice president of external relations for MPC. “That’s where you determine what your community will look like.”
Goals
Zoning regulates the use, size and government control of property by saying what can go where. But “the what” of 2002 is markedly different from that of 1957 Chicago. For example, Chicago has 700 miles of retail storefront from a time when everyone shopped in his neighborhood between the streetcar and home after work. Today people have cars and use them. And as services take over from goods, America needs fewer factories and more offices. Mixed retail / residential and commercial / industrial districts may make better use of Chicago.
The overall goals described by the Zoning Reform Commission are to reduce the number of district types. There are 99 different districts on the books, some making ridiculous distinctions to tailor zoning classifications to development policies, create rules that require buildings to fit into the neighborhood and implement these changes by modifying the zoning map.
Another subtle goal appears to be either providing more parking or discouraging people from driving. Allowing property owners to share extra spaces could take cars off the street, and replacing mandatory parking requirements with discretionary standards could allow historic buildings to survive at the expense of new cars. However, these observations are the musings of MPC experts, and all talk is well-informed guesswork until the full text is approved. One thing seems certain; affordable housing is noticeably absent from the Zoning Reform Commission’s plans. “Some of us wanted to do more, but there was no agreement,” said Commission member Diane Legge Kemp, president of DLK Architecture.
Community concerns
Sheil Park Neighbors want more parks and fewer condos. Ravenswood community groups are struggling to attract businesses to empty storefronts. Rogers Park neighbors say owners of dilapidated, long vacant commercial property have shunned community assistance and advice. And Near Northwest Neighborhood Network representative Roberto Nieves warns community leaders not to wait for zoning reform. “Developers are slick, so you have to be slick,” Nieves said at MPC’s second seminar on Nov. 14 at Northeastern Illinois University, 5500 N. St. Louis Ave., “If you are worried about your neighborhood, downzone now. Once the developers have their permits, that’s it.”
Urging Aldermen to push zoning changes through the City Council just in the nick of time is standard procedure in Chicago. Skosey said around 750 changes are made each year. There are lawsuits pending. “Hopefully with the revision there will be a lot fewer changes,” said MPC seminar panelist Linda Goodman of the Goodman Williams Group.
For this to work neighbors must be satisfied with the new districts as defined by the code and their placement in the neighborhoods. “We had numerous discussions with community groups before beginning the revision,” Kemp said. The new code tentatively includes building height requirements, something affecting Chicagoans from Lincoln Park to Lawndale. And a new district for parks is in the works. Maybe the Commissioners are listening, but the text is only phase one.
Phase two is the trenches where the battles for neighborhood identity will be won and lost. The MPC recommends that neighborhood groups define their areas, decide the principles they want to fight for, review what zoning districts in the text will defend such principles, and then look to the streets to identify what zoning designations will protect “assets” and allow for the transition of “challenges” to more positive uses.
The most controversial construction in the land may be coalition building. Old Irving Park includes corners of four different wards. “Talk to them all,” Skosey said. “In our neighborhood different community groups represent competing interests,” said a woman from Rogers Park. “We have a lot of time to work this out,” Skosey said. The MPC, it seems, hopes the challenge of reconciling myriad interests is met by the city’s greatest asset, its people. |
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