Village board members should keep faith with the planning process that they themselves initiated

To the Editor:

A few years back, the Altamont mayor and village board asked residents of Altamont and surrounding areas to participate in an extensive land-use planning process. Over several months, many residents took up this request, investing countless hours in workshops, deliberations, and drafting sessions. As a commercial property owner in the village, I participated and I was very impressed with the entire effort.   

People bought into this process because they were brought into the process. As a result, the entire village bought into the result: a thoughtful and comprehensive plan to govern village zoning and land-use decisions for the foreseeable future.

This plan was not intended as merely a suggestion or auxiliary resource for future political decision makers. It was intended as a compact governing future decisions. The plan represents an article of credibility and good faith between the citizens and the elected officials who set the process in motion, including several who remain on the village board today.

There’s been some talk lately that the plan is merely a flexible guide and that future land-use changes, whether supportive or contrary to the plan, are best left solely to the discretion of the individual board members. That does not keep faith, either with the plan or with the process that created it.

I practiced planning and zoning law in Chicago and there I learned how disillusioned people could become with local government when they were urged to participate only to have the results of their work later ignored by elected officials.

It’s true that, as a matter of law, a comprehensive plan created with citizen input can be changed at any time by elected officials, but, as a matter of good government, a plan should be changed only when there is clear citizen consensus supporting the change. Such is not the case today.

Perhaps consensus on the proposed zoning change for Stewart’s may yet be reached if Stewart’s were to present a building that is designed for a village like Altamont rather than simply a copy of the nondescript, suburban structure it recently built on Western Avenue. That remains to be seen.

Until then, the village board members should keep faith with the planning process that they themselves initiated.

Jeff Perlee

Altamont

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