I had never paid much attention to the Planning Commission until they considered a case in my neighborhood–the East Street neighborhood. In 2016, a Chicago-based developer planned to demolish 4 small older homes and build a 44-unit low-income housing development in their place. Nearby residents were concerned about the impacts on traffic, parking, and the changed look of the neighborhood. The old houses to be demolished were one and two bedroom homes with nice-sized yards and mature trees. The new, 44-unit place was an undistinguished design that would completely fill the property from side to side and front to back. It was also going to be 3 stories tall–quite a change from the four small single-story houses that would be demolished. The neighbors were also concerned about the amount of parking being built into the project. They felt that parking was inadequate and that the overflow would fill the surrounding neighborhoods.
A significant number of residents appeared at the planning commission, asking them to consider the scale, bulk, and density of the planned building and the amount of parking to be provided. To the current residents, the proposed building seemed clearly incompatible with the neighborhood and the influx of cars would clearly spill over to park in front of the surrounding houses. We were somewhat astonished when the Planning Commission approved the plan. Even more astonishing was the castigation we received for worrying about parking. Check it out:
If you can’t see a video above, link to it at youtu.be/Q6ONTLtMVvA
After that, I became a dedicated follower of Planning Commission meetings. One of the surprising things I’ve learned is that they consider “density” to be a positive aspect. They think we should be building more dwellings per square foot.
The 2030 Vision plan that the Community developed in 2010 emphsized that we wanted to preserve our small town look, feel and character. For many of us, that “look” is defined by neighborhoods of single family homes. One member of the Planning Commission had some interesting comments on that subject:
If you can’t see a video above, link to it at youtu.be/mft0wdD4u5Q
I’m not sure that every member of the Planning Commission is quite that hostile to single family homes, but I have concluded that as a group they encourage multi-family developments. When a developer wants to scrape an existing house and replace it with something bigger, taller, and multi-unit, the Planning Commission is likely to conclude that the scrape-off is “compatible” with the surrounding neighborhood.
