La Grange Backs Off From East Side Changes
LA GRANGE, IL – La Grange trustees on Monday said they were against a proposed provision in a long-term plan to allow triplexes and fourplexes in an east side neighborhood.
The area is in the village’s northeastern corner and includes Hayes, Sawyer, Bluff and Washington avenues. It is more diverse than the rest of town.
At a meeting late last month, residents in the neighborhood questioned why the village was singling out their neighborhood for triplexes and fourplexes.
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Last week, a meeting was held at Second Baptist Church, which is on Washington Avenue. Nearly everyone there supported grandfathering in existing triplexes, but not allowing new ones. (A recent analysis showed no fourplexes are in the neighborhood, the village said.)
At Monday’s Village Board meeting, resident Bessie Boyd, who lives on Sawyer Avenue, said she was for grandfathering in the existing triplexes. It was “humanitarian” to allow people to keep their homes, she said.
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Trustees agreed.
“The residents have been very clear,” Trustee Lou Gale said. “(Grandfathering in) is what I would support, which is maintaining the current character and zoning.”
The proposed change for the neighborhood was in the village’s proposed long-term plan for growth, often called the comprehensive plan.
Trustee Beth Augustine said the village should have perhaps spent more time with the document. She said officials did not intend to make residents feel threatened by proposing different zoning for their neighborhood.
“But it’s what happened, so we’ve learned our lesson,” she said.
Augustine credited her colleague, Trustee Glenn Thompson, for bringing the issue of the proposed zoning change in the east side neighborhood to the community’s attention.
The result, she said, was a “very fruitful” local discussion.
Thompson said he feared builders would “grab” all the available land on the east side and build million-dollar condos, pricing neighbors out of the market.
The Village Board is expected to vote on the long-term plan Monday.
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