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Group Seeking To Ease City's Zoning Limits

CHICAGO (CBS) -- In tough economic times, some Chicago homeowners claim the city stands to pocket tens of millions of dollars a year because of zoning laws the homeowners believe are unfair.

CBS 2's Vince Gerasole reports on their efforts to relax down-zoning and landmark neighborhood limits the city places on newer properties in their communities.

Homeowner Carol Mrowka said the old buildings on both sides of her block are mostly single family homes and smaller apartment buildings.

She said there are some beautiful older homes that might deserve landmark protection on their own, but zoning laws protect large areas of the neighborhood as landmarks.

"I think we've got some nice homes, but that doesn't mean they deserve preservation," Mrowka said.

But protective zoning laws on her side of the street limit the size of newer properties, while across the street, the rules are slightly more relaxed.

Mrowka is party to legal actions, some successful, which claim that haphazard size limits citywide also reduce potential property tax revenue.

"We're in a tough economic time, we don't need to make it tougher," she said.

To stop larger housing units from popping up next to single family homes, or to preserve stately landmark neighborhoods, down-zoning and landmark laws keep the size of newer structures in check.

"The down-zoning, the landmarking has created less taxes," she said. "We need the money. Where are we going to get it from?"

The group's legal challenges claim the city has the potential to collect $170 million dollars in additional property taxes every year if the down-zoning rules are only slightly relaxed.

Attorney Thomas Ramsdell said, "you are literally choking off the housing supply and choking off the very desperately needed tax revenues to help solve this budget problem."

He said that, in some areas of the city, down-zoning prevents real estate developers from building apartment or condominium complexes that are similar to buildings that were in place before down-zoning took effect.

But former Ald. Marty Oberman said the group's claims are "sort of an argument in a vacuum."

In the 1970s, Oberman worked on zoning laws to control Chicago's towering development and he said zoning laws are aimed at protecting existing quality of life in the neighborhoods.

"Zoning, it was put in place so the character of people's neighborhoods, their residential quality of life is protected," Oberman said. "Nobody wants a gas station built next door to them. Nobody in a bungalow wants a 50- or 60-foot apartment towering over them, blocking all the sunlight in their back yard."

Oberman said some neighborhoods on Chicago's North Side already are more densely populated than the notoriously crowded city of Tokyo.

But Mrowka said zoning laws could still be eased back to allow for only moderate increases in the size of new homes in some areas.

Of course, the estimate of $170 million in additional property tax revenue would only be collected only if every single piece of currently down-zoned property were developed and sold, and Chicago currently has more than it's fair share of unsold properties.

The hope of those filing these complaints is that the new administration will at least revisit the idea of the city's large number of down-zoned properties.

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