15th Ward Alder Raymond Lopez (ward map) has proposed downzoning 35 acres of land along 63rd St. from Marshfield Ave. to Damen Ave. in West Englewood (map).
The proposed zoning change would be done in two areas, as shown in the map below, and would prevent new businesses from opening, and change how existing businesses offer new services, move, or expand.
The larger area would change existing, medium-low density mixed-use districts to RS-3, which doesn’t allow anything but large, single-family houses. The smaller area would change existing, medium-low density mixed-use districts to B1–1, the most restrictive and lowest-density mixed-use zoning classification.
Any person who wants to open a business after such a zoning change would have to go to the alder and request, and pay for, a zoning change. Many of the parcels are vacant, and would need a zoning change if the property owner wanted to build something other than a single-family house.
As South Side Weekly and DNAinfo Chicago later determined, the reasoning behind downzonings in Bridgeport and South Shore was to take over control of which kinds of businesses people can open in those neighborhoods.