Sat Feb 11 2012
We thought Deerfield voters made a mistake when they tossed out the township's zoning ordinance last fall.
A zoning code, even a flawed one, provides safeguards for property owners through reasonable regulation of land use. Unrestricted land use can be an invitation for questionable development, such as the toxic waste site that made Deerfield a poster child for environmental abuse in the 1970s and required a Superfund clean-up.
Repealing zoning opens the doors for virtually any type of development. As it now stands, there isn't a great deal to prevent anyone from building just about anything anywhere in Deerfield.
A citizens' group has circulated petitions to return a zoning issue to the ballot this year. Assuming their signatures are sufficient to put the measure before voters, the next step is for township trustees to appoint a commission to draft the proposed zoning resolution.
Taking a second look at zoning is a wise course of action.
We hope that the trustees, in weighing applicants for the zoning commission, will include residents who found themselves on both sides of the repeal issue last fall. Input from all quarters would be helpful in drafting an acceptable zoning code.
We suggested last fall that if Deerfield's zoning code was imperfect, residents ought to work to change it rather than repeal it. A majority of the electorate -- a narrow majority -- thought otherwise and scrapped the zoning code entirely.
We continue to believe that a decent zoning code is important for land use, not only in cities but in rural areas such as Deerfield. Doing without zoning is an open door for potentially regrettable development, and Deerfield unfortunately has had more than its share of that.
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