This zoning map of Indian Gardens comes from Riverside’s planning and zoning commission. A majority of the village board preferred it. Credit: Courtesy of the Village of Riverside 
This zoning map comes from Riverside’s parks and recreation board. Most village trustees disliked its disregard for the natural wooded space near the riverbank. Credit: Courtesy of the Village of Riverside
Riverside’s village board on June 18 had the task of parsing which set of proposed zoning lines should be applied to Indian Gardens and the wooded riverfront area of the First Division.
One recommendation, from the village’s parks and recreation board, recommended zoning the entire area as a community park from the disk golf baskets southwest to the Scout Cabin, which would have its own unique zoning district. The other, from the planning and zoning commission, advised zoning only the active recreation areas, including the Scout Cabin, as parks and leaving the natural wooded areas zoned as open space.
The two maps, alongside separate use tables designating what is permitted in each kind of park zoning district, come as part of the village’s first pass at establishing zoning guidelines for its breadth of parks both big and small and its other green spaces.
“We’ve had a lot of different things that have been proposed or discussed in different parks, and the challenging part is there is no zoning,” said Village Manager Jessica Frances. “Disc golf was a great example. There was no clear process, and there was plenty of discussion. Like, ‘I feel like this needs to be reported to [the] preservation [commission], and it was, and the landscape advisory commission.’ But that wasn’t because there was a process; it was my previous experiences built upon over time that said, if we install this and we don’t do these different things, it’s not going to be good.”
After heated discussion, a majority of the board said they preferred the map from planning and zoning, which sharply delineated between park and open space on Indian Gardens, though the board’s consensus did not represent a final decision on the matter.
During the discussion, Community Development Director Anne Cyran said the planning and zoning map would require more village reviews if there were an effort to expand active recreation space within Indian Gardens while the parks and recreation map would not.
“For example, if the disc golf course were extended … you would amend the zoning map to enlarge the community park to include that area,” Cyran said.
Trustee Elizabeth Kos said she felt the planning and zoning map would be difficult to implement due to its irregular shape.
“What concerns me about this one is how it kind of jumps all over. I feel like that is a lot more complicated, and I wish we could smooth out the lines a little bit,” she said. “Where does it end, right? ‘Is it this tree or this tree?’ I feel like this makes it much more convoluted.”
Trustee Jill Mateo said she preferred that map due to its allowance of open space.
“That was my preference from the beginning, when we had the designation of the, on the bottom, the important bird area. The village committed to preserving that habitat, so my preference is to have the entire riverfront be open space so that we can preserve those areas,” she said.
Village President Doug Pollock agreed, emphasizing the potential for the park zoning guidelines to establish precedent.
“We’re putting in place a framework that will be used for future decision making, future public input, etc.,” he said. “What we zone right now should not be speculative; it should be based on what’s there. I don’t know if I would support an expansion of the disc golf or not, but I do believe strongly that should be separated, and that should be a separate public hearing process.”
The board also went on to discuss zoning use tables from the two advisory groups that established which uses would be permitted, allowed as special uses or not permitted in each of the proposed new zoning districts: community parks, neighborhood parks, open spaces, and the Scout Cabin and Swan Pond, which are both separated into their own unique districts.
Ultimately, the question of establishing parks zoning guidelines is set to be discussed by Riverside’s landscape advisory and preservation commissions, as well as the parks and recreation board again, before returning to the village board for an update. The village will then hold “a series of public hearings,” Cyran said, to give residents a chance to chime in on each portion of the village that is being rezoned.
