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O'Fallon committee backs resolution urging preservation of local zoning authority amid state 'build plan'
Summary
Committee approved a resolution, drafted as an Illinois Municipal League model, asking municipal input and urging preservation of local zoning authority in response to a proposed statewide 'build plan' that staff said could preempt home-rule zoning and allow multiple dwellings on single lots.
The Community Development Committee voted to approve a resolution expressing support for municipal zoning authority and asking the Illinois Municipal League (IML) to include the city's position in its materials on the governor's proposed "build plan."
Grant, the staff presenter, described a March memo from IML chief executive Brad Cole and said the governor's proposal would create statewide zoning and building standards that could remove minimum lot sizes, legalize accessory dwelling units, limit parking requirements, allow third-party plan reviewers and building inspectors, and create a statewide impact-fee formula. “From what our early understandings of the bill is, it does not deviate from traditional zoning of residential, commercial, industrial of a nature,” Grant said, “but what it does is it takes all the information within each of those zoning and makes it spread out uniformly across the state.”
Council members and residents pressed staff for specifics. One council member said the resolution was confusing—asking whether the municipality was "supporting the proposal"—and Grant clarified that the resolution supports local authority and is not an endorsement of the governor's proposal. Another member raised the prospect that reduced lot-size rules could worsen parking and lower property values; a member of the public asked whether the proposal could affect green space and even utility-scale uses on lots.
Grant said the IML model resolution is a template many communities are sending to show urgency for local inclusion in conversations with state lawmakers. If approved by council, the city will sign and forward the resolution to IML. The motion passed on roll call with members voting in the affirmative (Rosenberg; Parchment; Myler; Campbell; Lotz; Roach).
The resolution asks the IML to represent municipalities in discussions and to push for the maintenance of local zoning control; staff said the matter will continue to be monitored as the state legislative process unfolds.
