After months of redrafting sections of a proposed new development ordinance, Lake County officials took the first steps Monday toward finding out what others think about the document.
The County Board’s Planning, Building and Zoning Committee approved sending a notice soliciting comments to about 150 municipalities, public agencies and interest groups. The committee said it expected to hold an informational hearing on the document during the week of April 20 for governmental agencies.
“We’re going to try to bring municipalities into the idea of land use,” said committee Chairwoman Pamela Newton (R-Vernon Hills.) “We are not trying to get them to conform but to get them united.”
County officials said the goal of the proposed Unified Development Ordinance is to regulate growth in Lake County and to preserve open space and natural resources.
Towns can ignore county zoning and development regulations. The proposed ordinance would apply only to unincorporated sections of Lake County.
But county officials hope to influence the development of intergovernmental agreements to preserve the rural character of Lake County.
Public hearings on the document, which is intended to guide development in unincorporated Lake County in the next century, are expected this summer.
“It’s all coming together now,” said Robert Buhai (D-Highland Park.) “We’re probably going to have the best system in the country and bring municipalities into agreement to use such a system.”
But after months of internal amendments, reviews and comments on the document that defines residential, suburban and commercial development, some county officials complained they are bogged down in complexities.
“I feel we are losing track of where we are in the process,” said Carol Spielman (D-Highland Park).
The memo being sent out will include proposed changes to the ordinance as a result of earlier comments.
After the April informational hearing for government officials, the committee plans to send the proposed ordinance to the County Board. The board is expected to refer the document to the county Zoning Board of Appeals for public hearings this summer.
After the public hearings, the document will return to the Planning, Building and Zoning Committee for a last official review before the committee makes its final recommendation to the County Board.
Among the comments are those from Randall Arendt, a nationally recognized land-use planner, who urged county officials to offer “a menu of choices providing a great variety of options for landowners, all of which would confer distinct advantages to the county.”
The Village of Long Grove, in a preliminary review of the proposed ordinance, raised concerns about strip malls and how population density is calculated.
