It was a unanimous ‘no’ for Naperville’s Land Use Master Plan as Planning and Zoning commissioners voted not to recommend it to city council.
Reasons Why They Voted Against It
Concerns about the plan’s lack of addressing green spaces and the city’s historic district were some reasons for their vote. But the biggest was that all housing types were grouped into one category on the map.
“Again, I’ll restate, I think it’s a beautiful plan and we do need a new master plan,” said Chairman Bruce Hanson. “I think the various different places that we have defined makes sense. They are well thought through I just think we hit a brick wall here on the residential component of it.”
New Idea In The Master Plan
City staff said the changes to housing were done to allow more flexibility for future development. One potential idea is to outfit commercial zones with homes, something they say is currently not allowed with the current master plan.
“Commercial uses are changing with online shopping and just the way people use traditional commercial spaces,” said Allison Laff, the planning operations manager for the City of Naperville. “Allowing residential kind of meets the purpose of additional housing stock, but it also helps the center be more desirable in terms of it being mixed use, walkable, and having kind of a mix of commercial and residents at the same site.”
Laff noted that the master plan doesn’t call for rezoning, and petitioners would still need to go through the Planning and Zoning Commission and City Council for approval if they wanted to rezone an area.
Community Feedback at The Meeting
The majority of 18 community members who spoke at public comment were in agreement with commissioners and opposed the proposed master plan.
“The current draft of the plan takes a broad brush and blurs the line between residential types, designating all areas as residential. That is not clear, that’s not concise, and it’s not focused,” said Naperville resident Mike Marek.
City staff were unsure if they’d make any changes to the Land Use Master Plan before they present it to city council, which would be sometime in April.
Naperville News 17’s Christian Canizal reports.
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