Chicago ordinance affecting neighborhood cultural exhibits
REPUBLISHED DIRECTLY FROM AN ARTS ALLIANCE ILLINOIS EMAIL SENT MARCH 18, 2021:
In December, Ald. Sophia King introduced legislation that would erode Chicago’s long tradition of honoring and celebrating culture in our neighborhoods. Her proposed ordinance would prohibit cultural exhibits, such as house museums and libraries, in nearly all residential districts. These cultural spaces are a vital part of connecting residents and lifting up Chicago’s history, especially the history of BIPOC Chicagoans.
Landmarks Illinois, Artists Run Chicago, and Chicago Cultural Alliance, among others, are advocating to oppose this ordinance. We want to ensure the Chicago City Council, and particularly Ald. King, understand why this proposed ordinance would weaken our city’s neighborhoods and cultural communities.
Please submit a letter opposing this proposed ordinance (O2020-6185) to the City Council Zoning Committee. Download a draft letter here for your convenience. Letters are DUE BEFORE 9:00 am tomorrow (Friday). Very few letters have been submitted. Sign and email the letter by tonight (Thursday) to: ward04@cityofchicago.org ; Raymond.valadez@cityofchicago.org with a copy to Ward44@cityofchicago.org
This is on the agenda for a committee meeting on Tuesday, March 23rd, 10:00 am. If you would like to sign up to speak - starting at 10:00 AM on Friday, call (312) 744-6800 to register to speak at the 3/23 Committee Meeting. Leave a voicemail with your name and phone number, and state that you want to speak at the upcoming Zoning Committee hearing. The phone line to register will close at 9:00 AM on Monday. See more information below.
If you are in the 4th Ward, and Ald. Sophia King is your representative, please call (773-536-8103) or e-mail her directly to let her know that this proposal would negatively impact the cultural life of our city.
We are watching this ordinance and issue closely and will continue our advocacy.
In solidarity,
Jonathan VanderBrug
Public Comment Process for Chicago City Council Committee Meetings Conducted by Videoconference
Persons wishing to comment at a City Council committee meeting conducted by videoconference shall call (312) 744-6800 and leave a voice message with their name and telephone number. Requests to comment will be accepted from 10:00 AM two business days before the scheduled meeting until 9:00 AM the business day before the scheduled meeting. Any individual wishing to participate must be available at the scheduled start time of the committee meeting and have access to a touch-tone telephone.
After 9:00 AM on the business day before the scheduled meeting, the Sergeant-at-Arms will compile a list of names and telephone numbers of those who wish to participate and assign each person a number. The order of participants will be determined by a random draw that the Sergeant-at-Arms conducts from the assigned numbers.
Between 10:00 AM and 2:00 PM on the business day before the scheduled meeting, the Sergeant-at-Arms will contact each selected participant at the telephone number provided, and give them instructions to access the meeting, including a telephone number and passcode. The Sergeant-at-Arms will only make one attempt to call the selected participant; if there is no live response, the selection is forfeited, and the Sergeant-at-Arms will move on the next selected participant.
At the scheduled start time on the day of the meeting, selected participants must call into the meeting from the telephone number they originally provided to the City and wait to be called upon to speak.
Please note that City Council Rule 58E limits the public comment period to 30 minutes overall, with each participant limited to three minutes (both subject to modification in the reasonable, non-discriminatory discretion of the Committee chairman), so there is no assurance that every person who calls will have the opportunity to speak.
Statement from Alderman King, who is proposing the ordinance:
House Museums Deserve a Community Process: It is important for us to protect both our cultural heritage and our community. They are not mutually exclusive. The proposed ordinance was initiated in an effort to seek community engagement and support of museums as well as to provide assurances to the community that the museums will be an asset to the neighborhood. This process will also encourage the proposed museums to consider and engage the community, in its initial stages of planning so that there is an alignment of interests and support as we seek to preserve and protect the history and heritage in Chicago.
Community members have raised numerous concerns regarding current proposals to convert existing homes into museums after learning that there are no procedural safeguards in place for current residents to weigh in, have their concerns addressed, and hopefully, to create an alliance between the proposed museum and the community.
We are not trying to stop, inhibit, or deter cultural exhibits and museums, and we are certainly not trying to prevent important history from being acknowledged and celebrated. We were met with many obstacles to landmark the “Ebony/Jet” building and to pay homage to Ida B. Wells (with the first street downtown named after an African American and Woman) so understand all too well the challenges to preserve our cultural treasures.
We are, however, responsible for protecting the preservation of our history and our community. We understand and appreciate that certain homes have historical importance and need to be preserved, and that some should be an attraction. But every home should not have this right and certainly the very community where it is being proposed should have input. Even preserving a home via Landmark status comes with zoning consideration and a community process, which is all we are asking for here.
Museums by their very nature are public attractions that may bring large numbers of people to them as well as affect traffic patterns and parking. Currently, individuals can “as of right” turn their homes into museums, add stores to sell goods, and bring hundreds of people to the neighborhood, without adding parking and without any consideration for existing residents. Museums also have the absolute right to file for non-profit status and take their homes off the tax rolls, while potentially transferring some of the new costs and effect of changes to traffic and parking of the proposed museums to the community . The ordinance we are proposing would bring transparency, community input and a process to a decision that impacts so many.
To put it in perspective, there are only 3 existing museums in the entire city that are in an RS1, RS2 or RS3 zone: Edgewater Historical Society, Norwood Park Historical Society and the Ridge Historical Society. These museums are all over a hundred years old. Each of them are also on a main thoroughfare or arterial street, and on the edge of a residential neighborhood, not on a residential street.
Our ordinance would change museums from “as of right” in Residential neighborhoods (RS1, RS2 and RS3 designation). However, this doesn’t mean that one cannot have a museum in these areas. It just means that a proposed museum in those zoning jurisdictions would have to ask for zoning consideration and community input to do so. No current museum would be impacted by this ordinance. And newly proposed museums in other zoning categories would have to add “a special use”.
Notably, none of the individuals or organizations that are currently proposing museums live in the community that is being impacted. We believe that something so significant, that might impact community residents’ quality of life and perhaps their single largest investment, should have a process for engagement and input. This ordinance proposes transparency, community input and a process to make these impactful decisions.