Craig Failor News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Illinois’s first co-housing development saw shovels hit the ground last week, and membership chair Susan Stall said it is gratifying to see the project coming to fruition after years of planning.

Oak Park currently has two vacant church buildings which sit in residential neighborhoods. But with church attendance declining across America, the prospect that the village will face additional empty churches in the years ahead led village officials to attempt to get in front of the issue with a zoning change which would allow additional uses of such spaces. But at a July 31 village board meeting, being proactive on one topic crashed directly into Oak Park’s most enduring challenge. Parking.Churches, which typically draw crowds during only limited hours of the week, are not bound by existi...

Neighbors fiIed a formal request to see consistent zoning rules applied to both of Oak Park’s hospitals. Their request was denied in a 7-2 vote by the Plan Commission.

Neighbors to a proposed five-story development at 505 N. Ridgeland Ave. have formed a group called Oak Parkers for Wright-Sized Development (OPWSD), and they hope to expand their reach in advance of developer Ambrosia Homes’ neighborhood meeting on April 20.

During a contentious meeting in which its chair left before voting took place, the Oak Park plan commission recommended approval of an apartment building proposed for a vacant lot near Julian Middle School.