Fight over Longfellow Center property prompts Downers Grove to revise zoning rules

Opposition to a plan to redevelop a former school property has prompted Downers Grove officials to revise the village’s zoning codes.

This week, Downers Grove commissioners unanimously approved several text amendments to clarify some zoning rules for residential properties.

Commissioners said the clarifications were necessary to respond to critics opposing the redevelopment of Longfellow Center, a 94-year-old former school on roughly 3 wooded acres at 1435 Prairie Ave.

“When situations arise in which there are different interpretations of village codes, the village often takes steps to clarify the code and make sure all readers interpret the code the same way to avoid confusion,” Mayor Bob Barnett said.

In September 2021, Downers Grove Elementary District 58 sold the Longfellow site for $4.155 million to Burr Ridge-based McNaughton Development. At the time, the property was zoned for 12 residential homes on 60-foot-wide lots that conformed to the surrounding lot sizes in the neighborhood.

But many opponents of the redevelopment zeroed in on a village code that calls for lots to be 75-feet wide in new subdivisions. They also cited provisions about nonconforming lots, which are lots that met the minimum lot size requirements when the zoning was first established but are now smaller.

Some critics interpreted the rules for nonconforming lots to mean that a property owner could not build across contiguous plats of land. Others said contiguous lots should be consolidated to meet new subdivision lot standards.

“Enforce the ordinance as written, which was designed to implement the 75-foot requirement in a fair and balanced way when the developer owns contiguous lots,” Downers Grove resident Marshall Schmitt said during Tuesday’s meeting. “If it’s an unclear policy, it should be evaluated. But not in the context of a text amendment. It shouldn’t be rammed through as a text amendment.”

Before the vote, commissioners emphasized the text amendment on nonconforming lots did not change the development rights concerning the Longfellow property or the village’s stormwater regulations. They also referred to recent examples of how the existing code was applied.

“A single-family detached house can be constructed on a nonconforming lot, and consolidation is required only if a house to be constructed will cross the common line,” Barnett said. “That’s it. That’s the entirety of the issue being clarified by this amendment.”

Commissioner Chris Gilmartin said the consolidation portion of the zoning code was written to prevent property owners from building one structure across two lots and then maintaining the property rights as two separate land plats.

Other zoning code amendments approved Tuesday included solar panel provisions, locations of drive aisles for fueling stations and driveway and apron widths near property lines. Regulations for donation drop boxes also were codified.

https://www.dailyherald.com/news/20220217/fight-over-longfellow-center-property-prompts-downers-grove-to-revise-zoning-rules