The design of two recently-proposed townhouse developments – deemed out of place not only by some neighbors but by some village officials as well– has prompted Wilmette trustees to review the zoning laws those developments shone a light on.
Now trustees on the board’s land use committee will ask the full board to approve four code changes that will, in part, revert townhouse regulations in the low-density R2 districts to what they were before Wilmette overhauled its code in 2014.
The proposed changes reflect one reality of rewriting zoning codes, Village Trustee Carol Ducommun said: “You never know what you have to tighten up until you’ve lived through a situation that needs (tightening.)”
If suggestions from the land use committee, which met Feb. 11, are approved by the full board, code language that covers R2 districts – districts conceived as transitional neighborhoods between single-family zoning and non-residential areas, and which allow low-density multiple family housing like vertically stacked flats and townhouses – will get four changes, all of them sparked by debate over two similar recent cases:
* Townhouse developments that aren’t on corner properties will once again become a special use, requiring review by the zoning board of appeal and the village board, if their design includes so-called “side-loaded” units whose front doors actually face a property’s side border. The 2014 zoning code update had made such side-facing units a permitted use in R2 districts, something many R2 residents opposed during debate on the two cases, one reviewed in 2014 and 2015, one reviewed in late 2015 and in January of this year.
* Side-yard setbacks will increase from a minimum of 12 feet to 20 feet, in part to address concerns residents and trustees had about how townhouse developments could loom over their neighbors.
* The location where townhouses can have attached garages will be clarified to specify that garages can’t face the street, but will allow townhouses that face to the side to have attached garages on the same side as their front doors. The change, village staff said, would clear up confusion the code rewrite inadvertently caused.
* The distance between two townhouse buildings on the same property must be 30 feet, even when the buildings aren’t aligned front to back. Currently, the code allows a narrower separation if one building’s front or rear faces the side of the development’s second building. The change will help maintain more open space between the units, and increase privacy between townhouse units, village staff said in a report to the committee.
All of the recommendations from staff to the land use committee come in the wake of two contentious zoning cases about the same Wilmette Avenue property, 13-14-1318 Wilmette Ave.
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Both cases, including a project trustees approved last month, generated concerns from neighbors and trustees over the look and zoning appropriateness of architectural designs that faced only one townhouse toward Wilmette Avenue, while the rest faced toward the east side of two combined lots, especially since the projects were envisioned for the middle of the block, with neighbors on both sides.
Even before developer Sam Gambacorta’s two-building, five-unit development passed the village board on Jan. 12, Village President Bob Bielinski had asked the committeeto review zoning regulations covering such cases. He sent the issue to the land use committee after the village board in January 2015 rejected plans by a different developer to put a two-building, seven-unit townhouse project on the same property.
Nearby residents complained that the density of that project was too high, and that the design, which saw all but the front townhouse facing the side of the two-lot property, changed the character of the neighborhood. Trustees agreed.
Neighbors took many of the same concerns to the zoning board of appeals last December, when the ZBA reviewed Gambacorta’s project and recommended that the village board not approve it. The board overturned their recommendation on Jan. 12.
The land use committee did not make any recommendations on the issue when it first met last September, but members who met Feb. 10 unanimously approved the four staff suggestions.
Trustee Ted McKenna, who had voted against the Gambacorta development, said each suggestion made sense for townhouse projects that are planned – not for corner lots, but for construction in the middle of the block.
Gambacorta attended the Feb. 10 meeting as well and told the committee he also approved of the changes, saying that the setback changes would help restrain developers from building projects too close to lot lines.
The four recommendations must now go to the village board.
Twitter: @pioneer_kathy