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Palos Park staff to study sliding scale for impervious-surface limits on larger lots
Summary
The boards signaled support for a tiered approach that would reduce allowable impervious coverage as lot size increases and asked staff to research and return recommended percentages for various lot-size bands.
Palos Park — Planning staff proposed and boards generally endorsed an approach to impervious-surface limits that would reduce the allowed percentage of impermeable coverage as lot size increases, with staff returning with researched thresholds for the next draft.
Staff said the village’s current residential maximum is 55 percent impervious coverage across lot sizes and noted that on large properties that can permit an enormous absolute area to be paved. To address that, the draft sets a sliding scale where larger lots would have smaller maximum percentages so the amount of green space stays relatively large on larger holdings.
Why it matters: Impervious surface controls stormwater runoff, affects tree preservation and controls how much of a lot can be paved for driveways, patios and pools. Commissioners asked staff to refine the example numbers and to return with defensible thresholds.
Next steps: Staff will research comparative standards, refine the proposed percentage bands for different lot sizes and report back. Commissioners expressed general support for the sliding-scale idea and asked for specific numbers rather than examples in the public‑hearing draft.
Ending: The boards did not adopt exact percentages at the meeting but tasked staff to provide a revised table and analysis for the next meeting.
