In the wake of resident unease about possible changes in the character of their neighborhood, the La Grange Village Board decided to again put off voting on a new Comprehensive Plan.
At issue was a suggestion to change village code to allow three and four flats in some residential neighborhoods that currently allow only single-family and duplex homes.
For some opponents of the measure, the proposal evoked racist redlining practices that led to segregated neighborhoods in the 20th century, because many of the residential areas that would be affected by the new guidelines are on the village’s East Side.
“As the village is aware, the East Side community has been predominantly African American, and now it has become a more diverse community,” said lifelong La Grange resident Bessie Emerson Boyd, who lives on Sawyer Avenue.
Boyd, who is a Realtor and former member of the La Grange School District 102 Board of Education, compared the proposal to redlining, a practice with roots in the Depression-era New Deal that singled out neighborhoods as risky for investors. She noted that courts had ruled the practice illegal.
“Anywhere African Americans lived, and anywhere African Americans lived near, were color-coded red to indicate to appraisers that these neighborhoods were too risky to insure mortgages,” she said.
Boyd stressed that the practice was detrimental to the ability to build equity in their homes and pass it on to their children.
Resident Janine Ferguson-Marshall agreed the move would have a negative effect on the area’s diversity.
“(Adding) triplexes and quadplexes, you’re destroying the density factor that’s there right now,” she said. “Density is a form of environmental injustice.”
Along with additional people, the larger multifamily homes would require more infrastructure, she said.
“Where are they going to put their cars?” she said. “Where is that runoff going to go?
Marshall urged the board to set aside the plan for further study and make more efforts to include affected residents. She was one of several residents from the east side of La Grange to question the proposal’s merits.
Regina McClinton reeled off census figures highlighting the growing density of the village in the last 20 years.
“If we’re looking to add more, we know that things have to be corrected — infrastructure, make sure we have adequate schools, and everything that goes with it … like flooding,” she said. “I wouldn’t want to see a four-plex right next to me. I’m sure most of you would not.”
The plan’s proposals are only guidelines, and any formal changes to code would still have to be made by the trustees, officials said. Still, trustees agreed that more discussion on the matter was needed at the Village Board level.
“Kicking this back to the Plan Commision isn’t going to solve anything,” Trustee Glenn Thompson said.
The next La Grange Board of Trustees meeting will be at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 18 at the La Grange Village Hall, 53 S. La Grange Rd.
Hank Beckman is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.
