ACTION REQUIRED: Village Board surprise trick, Sept 5 meeting

Hi. A surprise development on the Albion matter—unfortunately it’s trouble and we again need to stand up and be seen and heard. We need you once again to contact the Trustees and, if you are in the area, to attend the upcoming Village Board meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 5, 7:30 at Village Hall (7:15 to register to make a public comment). Here’s why: On Tuesday, the O.P. Board of Trustees is set to vote on a series of changes to the zoning ordinances, mostly technical, except it includes a change that would render the Plan Commission powerless, and remove any effect of their rejecting the proposal—or any future Planned Development proposal. Currently, the law says that if the Plan Commission rejects a Planned Development application, the Village Board must have a two-thirds majority to overrule that recommendation (that is, to approve it anyway). The new ordinances would REMOVE THE REQUIREMENT FOR A TWO-THIRDS VOTE for the Board to override the Plan Commission’s rejection. It would now take only a simple majority to overturn a Plan Commission rejection (4 votes instead of 5 out of 7). Moreover, an existing requirement that a developer wait two years before resubmitting a rejected proposal has also been deleted. That means that even if the proposal is rejected now, Albion could start all over again the next day, if it wanted to. Or whenever the Mayor has another chance to stack the Plan Commission with a compliant commissioner. We must fight to stop these changes and to restore the minimal safeguards built into current requirements. They should be strengthened, not removed! Our sources say that these changes were not discussed or approved by the Plan Commission, nor discussed with Trustees. As far as we can tell, these changes were never pointed out to them, and they did not notice it before. We need to stand up to say that we will not tolerate these sneaky tricks. There is another questionable motion on the agenda that may increase Downtown building height limits from 80 to 125 feet, but it is unclear what this applies to. We need to keep an eye on that, too. Please, if you are in the area, attend the next Board meeting, Tues. Sept. 5 at 7:30 at Village Hall. Arrive by 7:15 to fill out forms to make public comments. Bring family, friends and neighbors—numbers do matter. See “about public comments”, below. Also find links to further info below that. Please e-mail or phone the Trustees to express your outrage: President Anan Abu-Taleb, call 708.358.5797 or email mayoranan@oak-park.us. Trustee Deno Andrews, call 708.358.5788 or email trusteeandrews@oak-park.us. Trustee Simone Boutet, call 708.358.5787 or email trusteeboutet@oak-park.us. Trustee Andrea Button, call 708.358.5796 or email trusteebutton@oak-park.us. Trustee Dan Moroney, call 708.358.5789 or email trusteemoroney@oak-park.us. Trustee James Taglia, call 708.358.5794 or email trusteetaglia@oak-park.us. Trustee Robert Tucker, call 708.358.5793 or email trusteetucker@oak-park.us. The powers-that-be are deliberately making this very hard. We will not give in! About public comments. The Board takes “non-agenda” comments first thing. Comments on specific agenda items are taken at the time the agenda item comes up. Because Albion is not on the agenda, it should be possible to make a 3-minute comment at the beginning if that’s what you want to talk about. Many of us are focused on the zoning changes right at the moment. People who wish to comment on zoning changes should be prepared to stick around a bit longer, until those items come up. You are allowed sign up for both non-agenda and agenda comments, 3 mins each. Also, there are three agenda items relating to zoning (Items H, I, and J). One could in principle sign up for all 3, if you have something to say about each. Arrive by 7:15 to be sure you can sign up for public comments of any type, and hand the sign-up form(s) to Village Clerk Scaman. Hand in a separate form for each topic you wish to comment on, and specify on each form whether this is a non-agenda comment or which agenda item your comment is for. The meeting agenda is here: https://oak-park.legistar.com/Calendar.aspx and the draft zoning ordinance here: https://oakparkupdate.files.wordpress.com/2017/01/zo-january2017-pc-recommended.pdf . The section about Village Board action is Section 14.5, particularly paragraph F.4, if you want to check it out. Thanks, Josh