Oak Park trustees press consultants for concrete targets after 'missing middle' zoning update

Consultants working on Oak Park's Shape Oak Park missing‑middle zoning project gave the Village Board an interim status report Wednesday, and trustees responded with a mix of cautious support and sharp questions about goals and implementation.

"This is not a final presentation. There will be no recommendations offered at this time," Jennifer Settle of Opticos told the board as she summarized months of analysis and public outreach. The presentation said the project is about 70% complete and aims to align zoning with existing middle‑housing types, protect neighborhood form, and create more housing choices for older adults, young families and renters.

Marisa Schultz of Altogether, the outreach firm on the project, said the team reached roughly 600 community members through surveys, focus groups, pop‑ups and workshops. "The top three priorities that percolated to the top were walkable and safe neighborhoods, access to parks and green space, and housing options they can afford," she said.

Jake Side of Site Line Planning and Zoning reviewed technical barriers in Oak Park's code, including districts that allow only single‑family homes, lot‑assembly requirements that can force developers to consolidate parcels, and design standards that add cost and complexity. He said ADU rules and special‑use processes on corridors also reduce predictability for smaller multiunit housing types.

Trustees focused their questions on three recurring themes: what the project is optimizing for, whether proposed districts would legalize existing nonconforming multiunit buildings, and how the village will pair zoning changes with incentives to achieve affordability.

"If this zoning change that we ultimately enact does not create more supply, I'm the sponsor of this — I won't vote for it," one trustee said, arguing the board needs a clear "north star" such as unit‑count or capacity targets tied to affordability objectives.

Consultants answered that zoning alone is not a panacea. "Zoning alone isn't going to make them affordable," Settle said, noting that building types, construction costs and market forces also matter. She and Side said draft zoning could substantially reduce nonconformities and that the team will recommend complementary steps — such as incentives, first‑time buyer programs and inclusionary housing revisions — in later work.

Several trustees urged staff to do more targeted outreach to renters, lower‑income households and communities less likely to take an online survey. Others asked for protections against wholesale tear‑downs or lot consolidations that could erase starter homes; the consultants said design standards and targeted rules could be used to discourage demolitions while still allowing gentle density.

Staff intends to return with final recommendations late May or early June; the next steps include drafting specific zoning regulations based on the board's direction, scheduling a public hearing before the planning commission, and then returning to the board for final adoption.

The discussion underscored a central tension for Oak Park: how to expand housing choices and address racial and economic equity without compromising the village's character or senior residents' stability. The board requested additional data on likely impacts, trade‑offs and possible incentive programs ahead of the next presentation.