The Village of LaGrange Park board voted 5 to 1 on July 22 to amend the boundary of the 30 First Street Barnsdale Business District to include property at 1024 Newberry Avenue, clearing the way for demolition of existing structures and expansion of the village-owned Beach Avenue parking lot. Trustee Zora moved to approve the ordinance; a second was recorded. Trustee Council cast the lone no vote.
The change, which Trustee Zora and other board members said is intended to increase parking and support business recruitment along the 30 First Street corridor, follows an eligibility study prepared by S.B. Friedman Development Advisors, LLC that staff summarized at a June public hearing and at a July 8 work session.
Residents who spoke during the agenda-related public comment period urged the board to reconsider. Mimi Lampert of 1000 Newberry told the board the property was purchased “without transparency or communication with the immediate neighborhood” and said adding the parcel to the business district appears intended to expand a “poorly maintained, deteriorating” parking lot; she also cited a recent parking-use study that, she said, found additional parking unnecessary. Cheryl Peterson of 1021 Newberry described a long history of permit parking on the 1000 block and asked trustees to visit the neighborhood before approving expansions, saying narrow streets (she cited 28-foot widths) and safety concerns had persisted for years.
Trustee Council said she was voting against the amendment because the village had already purchased 1024 Newberry using business district funds even though the parcel was not on the original district map; she said retroactively placing the property in the district raises questions about transparency and requires revising the redevelopment plan. Trustee Wagner and Trustee Sheehan both said the board had discussed the purchase and viewed the acquisition as an uncommon opportunity to improve parking and support nearby businesses.
The ordinance approved by the board designates the amended business district and imposes realtor and service occupation taxes as part of the redevelopment framework. The vote record was: Trustee Lautner — yes; Trustee Zora — yes; Trustee Council — no; Trustee Sheehan — yes; Trustee Caputo — yes; Trustee D'Aferrio — yes; President Jim DeCipio — yes.
Discussion vs. decision: the board’s vote was a formal action to amend the business-district boundary; residents’ requests to repair and restrict the existing lot, and calls for neighborhood meetings, were part of public comment and not adopted as conditions of the ordinance. Staff and the eligibility study were cited as justification for including the parcel; Trustee Council flagged the purchase process and the need to revise the plan as outstanding concerns.
The board moved on to other business after the roll call; no immediate design or construction approvals for the expanded parking were adopted that night, and trustees said further design meetings would follow.