Comment by tptacek
2 months ago
We're the first municipality in Illinois to draft and adopt an instance of ACLU's CCOPS model legislation, which requires board approval at a recorded public board meeting before any agency (most especially our police force) can adopt any form of surveillance technology, given a broad (ACLU-supplied) definition of "surveillance". Previous to that, our police force could acquire arbitrary surveillance products so long as they kept under a discretionary budget threshold; they used that latitude to acquire a pilot deployment of Flock ALPR cameras, and CCOPS was a response to that.
My real goal is zoning.
In Chicago itself, I have less clarity, but am optimistic that somewhere on Facebook is a message board where the staff at your alderman's office reads posts, and the most politically engaged people in your neighborhood argue with each other. That's your starting point (and maybe your ending point). Just go, listen, and chime in with high-effort comments. If you're used to clearing the bar for HN comments, you're way past the threshold of coding like a super-thoughtful person in local politics.
God speed to you sir! What is your goal wrt zoning?
The categorical elimination of single-family zoning along with any building envelope restrictions that would make as-of-right 3-flats uneconomical.
It's might actually be easier to win the economics battle by chipping away at restrictions on taller buildings. The builders in my area are copy/pasting a 3-flat design all over the place but it requires bargain-basement land prices (literally building on former toxic waste dumps) or money from the township because 3-flats make you have to build wide.
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Rather than the complete elimination of single family (and by extension even larger lots) I feel like it ought to follow something resembling an iterated 80/20 rule out to huge rural lots at the far end. Notice that this would imply a plurality of the land being zoned for the highest density at any given time.
The thing that really kills density in most cases is the height restrictions. A lot of the upzoning in my area has resulted in ugly, wall-to-wall low-single-digit floor count buildings with near zero setback. It's better than single family but it isn't particularly dense and it's a huge step backwards aesthetically.
A step in the right direction last week for the largest upzoning effort in the city! https://archive.is/QuOcJ
Of course the a vocal minority is fuming about higher density.
That would be an outstanding outcome! Is this just for Oak Park, or beyond?
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