By Dee Longfellow
For The Elmhurst Independent
There was a joint meeting of the City’s Planning & Zoning Committee and the Zoning & Planning Commission on Tuesday, March 3 at City Hall to begin the process of rewriting the zoning code as needed.
The Commission, chaired by former 3rd Ward Alderman Susan Rose, is an advisory board to the Elmhurst City Council through the Planning & Zoning Committee chaired by 6th Ward Alderman Michael Honquest. Honquest and Rose led the meeting on Tuesday, introducing Arista Strugys of Camiros consulting, who gave an overview of the process of rewriting zoning ordinances.
The presentation was based on information gathered at recent community open house events that offered the public an overview of the City’s zones.
Strugys noted there were certain things already in place in the community that would remain at the forefront of zoning considerations, primarily the City’s Comprehensive Plan. Zoning codes will support the goals of the Plan including preserving residential neighborhoods, a vibrant mixed-use downtown, commercial nodes and corridors, and others. The Plan calls for a transit-oriented district (TOD)-based downtown and five subareas: Lake Street; North & Rte. 83; First & York; York & Vallette; and, York & Butterfield.
Honquest brought up how zoning can be affected by technology and how fast it changes.
“It’s hard to make a decision about zoning ordinances when technology changes so quickly,” he said. “Sometimes we put people through a long process [passing an ordinance] and then right away, the technology changes to make it easier and simpler.”
Rose talked about revisions that were needed to the Code such as multi-residential, multi-family structures.
“There were, at one time, duplexes that were zoned multi-family,” she said. “As that culture has moved ahead, we just don’t have those any more. We should be able to move that along in a more productive way.”
Definitions will be reviewed and changed as needed. For instance, Rose said the Code needed to better define group homes, that is, congregate housing for the disabled, for those in need of transition, sober living homes, and so forth. Likewise, certain social services need to be firmly defined, such as drug treatment clinics.
“The definitions are weak,” said Rose. “We’re behind the curve on this.”
In terms of improvements to the zoning process, Rose said she felt the greatest need was to make things easier for residents who are adding something to their homes.
“If you’re a developer you’ve got a whole group of attorneys with you, but residents shouldn’t have to feel like they need a lawyer just because they want to build a deck.”
Bad news: drones can’t be zoned
Speaking of technology advancing more rapidly than government can keep up, drones are already here and show no signs of going away – only signs of more and more frequent use in more and more different applications and capacities.
When drones came up at the meeting, Strugys gave the bad news.
“Drones are not on land and therefore, are not subject to any land zoning laws,” she said.
As stories mount about drones flying onto people’s property, even up to their windows, the next challenge seems to be how to monitor and control them, especially to protect the privacy of residents.
“We’ll have to figure out how to zone air,” someone later commented.
