Palos Park officials preview broad zoning code rewrite, set several local limits and process steps

Speaker 3 (planner/consultant) opened an informal joint meeting to walk village representatives through a draft rewrite of the zoning code and said the next step is a public-hearing draft before the Plan Commission and then Village Council. "Once this document's okay, we would be heading into creating a public hearing draft which would go before the plan commission for recommendation, and then approval by the code to council," Speaker 3 said.

The draft renames "traditional lots" as "legacy lots" and clarifies how undersized lots will be treated. Speaker 3 explained the numeric thresholds under discussion: the acreage yardstick for a full acre is 43,560 square feet, the draft treats legacy lots as those under an acre and adds a 20,000-square-foot minimum legacy-lot threshold; lots smaller than 20,000 square feet would be legally nonconforming and could require variances to rebuild or expand.

Residential standards were refined in the draft. Speaker 3 said minimum dwelling sizes were adjusted in two contexts: a 2,200-square-foot minimum for certain "Ottawa" lots and a 500-square-foot minimum threshold for legacy lots; the plan commission and building-code review will determine how small dwellings meet building- and safety-code requirements.

The panel made several decisions and clarifications on accessory uses and design controls. The draft limits accessory structures finished with exterior metal panels to 144 square feet, revises accessory-structure setbacks to 10 feet from interior side lot lines and 15…