Charlissa Hart, a 55-year Champaign resident, urged the City Council at the Sept. 16 meeting to collaborate with Champaign Unit 4 schools and other jurisdictions to counter residential patterns that produce socioeconomic segregation in local schools.

Hart asked the city to use zoning and housing policy to encourage integrated neighborhoods, to work nonbindingly with the school district on boundary and enrollment planning, and to engage the university and other stakeholders in a coordinated effort to improve outcomes for students.

A councilmember responding to the comment said the city’s planning department has already started work to revise zoning ordinances intended historically to segregate neighborhoods, and that the council directed staff to study changes to undo those patterns. The councilmember noted that while the city cannot redraw school district boundaries, city zoning changes could support more integrated housing patterns and make it easier for the district to adopt different boundary approaches.

The council did not adopt any new zoning amendments at the meeting; staff were described as continuing a multi-step review of ordinances and planning tools to address residential segregation patterns.