The only newcomer vying for a seat on the La Grange Village Board held her first major campaign event Feb. 27.
Carla Carter, an attorney and Michigan native, has been a La Grange resident since 2018, when she moved here with her husband Brad and three children.
“I think La Grange does a great job of making people want to come here,” she said between greeting people in the estimated crowd of 50 residents and supporters at Milk Money Brewing, 75 La Grange Rd.
There are three open seats being contested in the April 1 municipal election, and the other three candidates are incumbents Lou Gale, Glenn Thompson and Peggy Peterson.
After graduating college, Carter moved to Chicago and worked as a biochemist at the University of Chicago.
She later attended law school at DePaul University and today specializes in intellectual property law. And her experience in business is a prime motivation for her run for the board.
Thursday night Carter talked about what she felt was needed to continue to attract business to the village.
“I think the first thing we have to focus on is changing some of these antiquated regulations to allow more business diversity,” she said. “Because more business diversity equals more revenue. And we’re going to have some revenue issues with some big infrastructure projects that are coming.”
Pressed on what regulations needed changing, Carter spoke directly to ordinances governing the serving of alcoholic beverages.
“The best example is changing the 60-40 rule to allow, for instance, a wine bar,” she said, referring to village code that requires any establishment serving alcohol to derive no more than 40 percent of its revenue from alcohol sales. “We’ve had multiple people come to La Grange and say, ‘we want to open a wine bar,’ or a distillery and La Grange simply said, ‘no, we don’t allow that.’ So those same wine bars and distilleries went to surrounding towns, where they’re thriving.”
Carter also spoke about other controversial proposals before the board in recent years, particularly video gaming.
“I don’t really know enough about the economics behind it and I do know there are some businesses interested in it, but I don’t know if that has the right feel for what the downtown business district wants,” she said.
But she didn’t rule out changing the zoning for other areas of the Village.
“That might be some different zoning for south of 47th Street, which we’re trying to get some rehabilitation for that area,” she said, while noting that more study on the issue was needed.
Carter stressed the need to have more community input on important issues before the Board of Trustees.
“Part of what we need to do is have more community forums on the issues,” she said. “If somebody wants something, at least bring the community together and get some input, rather than just saying ‘no, we don’t want to talk about it. … I think the residents want to feel heard, they want to know somebody’s taking their input into consideration.”
Carter said she would bring legal and business expertise to the Board of Trustees.
“I’ve been in business for about 17 years and I run a pretty thriving law practice downtown, so I am able to bring experience with not only running a business, but I understand the legal system,” she said. “I specialize in intellectual property and commercial litigation, so I do bring that understanding as to what’s necessary. I think I bring a lot to the position.”
Barbara and Al Foreman live a few blocks from the downtown district, have been in La Grange for 38 years, and a desire to get more involved in the community brought them to the event.
“I’ve recently gotten involved in attending more of the Village Board meetings,” Al Foreman said. “The spark was last summer when the comprehensive plan came up. I got very involved providing some feedback then.”
Barbara Foreman had a specific concern about the direction of the village.
“I’m not sure it’s going to be raised in this forum here, but I’m very concerned about affordable housing in La Grange and in general,” she said. “Who knows where this is going to go now with the current administration in Washington, where there’s less of a focus on human beings.”
Hank Beckman is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.
