About Rockford’s zoning ordinance: What’s broken?

January 16th, 2008 at 11:13pm Chuck Sweeny

I columnized in the

paper on Tuesday about the city of Rockford’s proposed zoning ordinance to prohibit subdivisions that all have garage-first houses. The city claims it wants diversity in subdivision construction, but the more I think about it, I worry about what looks like a thinly disguised attempt at gentrification.

If we write an ordinance that makes houses significantly more expensive to build,  developers won’t build them in Rockford, but in friendlier communities next door . Worse, we would surely see an increase in “leapfrog” developments a hop, skip and jump beyond Rockford’s 1.5 mile area of control around its boundaries.

A proliferation of the Davis Junction model — huge subdivisions in cornfields that are miles fom shops, jobs and schools — would be a disaster.

Yes, i’d like middle class people to consider moving into Rockford’s older neighborhoods. But making it more difficult to build at the edge of town won’t do that, despite what some urban policy wonks might think. All the zoning controls established by Portland, Oregon, have done is to encourage sprawl outside the city.

The same thing could happen in good old Forest City.

Middle class folks will come to Rockford when we have a first class school district and middle class jobs that allow people to buy homes on Harlem Boulevard.

Ladies and Gentlemen of the City Council: Tell me exactly what’s broken?

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