Location of meeting: Via Zoom
Time meeting was called to order: 7:00pm
Attendees: Kristin Berg, Nan Parson, Marilyn Novak, Melani Kaplan, Jeanne Wells, Kathy Rosling
Agenda Items:
- Nan and Kristin met with Claudia Hampel, new CP&D Coordinator, and Richard Peters, staff Planner. They may both be working on the Comprehensive Plan when P&Z takes it up again (likely after the first of the year). Richard worked on various aspects of the Plan, but since he was the liaison to the Zoning Board of Appeals, we did not see him in P&Z meetings. Both Claudia and Richard believe our Plan needs to address AH. Richard told us it would be helpful if we could talk to the school board and get their feedback on density and projections for growth over the next few years. Opponents of AH often mention school overcrowding as a reason to limit any multifamily building in Park Ridge. Nan and Kristin plan to talk to the Superintendent about this issue.
Richard said he would let us know who the liaison to P&Z will be going forward. As a note, most scheduled P&Z meetings have been canceled over the last several weeks. There are a couple of recently appointed Commissioners to P&Z so it will be interesting to see if the dynamics change.
Nan and Kristin meet with Drew Awsumb, the new CP&D Director on Monday 10/11.
- Upcoming events/updates:
- WTTW “First Hand” series will be filming Nan and possibly one of our meetings sometime on the future. WTTW is looking for a new director.
- Michael Rabbitt from Neighbors for Affordable Housing let us know that the 297 unit apartment development to be built in Chicago on Higgins Road near the Cumberland Blue Line Station was not on the agenda for the Chicago Zoning Commission in October. He will keep us posted. There will be 59 affordable units in the property.
- Nan and Kristin to present and be panelists in a LWV Palatine virtual program: The Importance of Stable, Affordable Housing for Communities and What You Can Do About It on 10/13. We will send the flyer around again for those wanting to attend.
- Ann Kapustiak will be presenting on the history of Park Ridge – how we got to be segregated - at the November 3rd Action Ridge meeting. She has done lots of research with the help of her professor at Tulane University. She will also provide insights as to how and why MSHS was built.
- Action Ridge’s Diversity Discussion Group will be discussing the book, “Garbage Wars”, on November 11th. AR is collaborating with Collection Resource, an Evanston composter also working on social justice, for the meeting. All are welcome.
- Nan and Kristin also want to set up meetings with Aldermen Biagi and Sanchez and possibly members of P&Z.
- There was a check-in on the Advocacy Toolkit. Ginger Pennington submitted a draft document and Kristin made some edits and additions. The group is still going through it, but the initial feedback is that it was helpful to the group. We have to figure out how else to use it. The document has not gone out to the entire mailing list yet. Kristin will send it to Melani and a few others who regularly attend the meetings. We can decide about what to circulate on a larger scale.
- Kathy said that she found a few of the statements to be more subjective and wasn’t sure that she agreed with them. She thought a shorter version would be useful to use when talking to people about AH.
- Nan would like to see a question on the Developer Survey that was specific to their experience (or lack of) in Park Ridge.
- Jeanne reached out to a few service organizations to see if they would support our position when the Comp Plan work starts up again.
- She received a response from Avenues for Independence and sent them the AR website and the Community Statement Nan presented to City Council (signed by almost 100 residents).
- Kathy told us John McNabola, ED of Center for Concern, would write up something to submit to P&Z and City Council when the time was right.
- Jeanne also left a message for Carol Hill, Pastor at the PR Community Church, and part of the Ministerial Association.
- Kristin suggested Jeanne might contact Have Dreams, the organization that supports people with autism and their families.
- Nan thought the schools would be in support and is thinking about how to approach them.
- Kathy suggested approaching Lutheran Genal. They have been approached in the past and it is a matter of finding the right person to talk to.
Time Meeting Adjourned: 8:15pm
Next Meeting Date: Thursday, November 4th at 7:00pm via Zoom
