{"id":7203,"date":"2026-04-06T18:17:58","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T18:17:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/2026\/04\/06\/quite-alarming-cary-mayor-critical-of-state-zoning-parking-legislation-daily-herald\/"},"modified":"2026-04-06T18:17:58","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T18:17:58","slug":"quite-alarming-cary-mayor-critical-of-state-zoning-parking-legislation-daily-herald","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/2026\/04\/06\/quite-alarming-cary-mayor-critical-of-state-zoning-parking-legislation-daily-herald\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Quite alarming\u2019: Cary mayor critical of state zoning, parking legislation – Daily Herald"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cary Mayor Mark Kownick used the recent annual state of the village address to warn residents of possible state legislation that would put substantial limits on local control of things from housing to parking.
Kownick, serving his fourth term as the village\u2019s top elected official, spoke at the business roundtable hosted by the Cary-Grove Area Chamber of Commerce.
Statewide parking reform legislation called the People Over Parking Act<\/a>, which goes into effect in June, means local governments will no longer be able to enforce or impose minimum parking requirements on projects within a half mile of public transportation, such as the downtown Cary Metra station.
\u201cOur main thing right now is loss of local control,\u201d Kownick said. \u201cThey want to take away all of our authority, and that just can\u2019t happen.\u201d
The village requires 2.25 parking spaces per unit, but zoning commissioners can consider lower amounts on a case-by-case basis.
Kownick called the legislation \u2014 which passed last year as part of a major public transit bill<\/a> \u2014 \u201cquite alarming\u201d during a village board meeting earlier in March.
On top of limited parking control, another statewide legislative proposal could take away local control over residential density.
Gov. JB Pritzker has proposed addressing the state\u2019s housing shortage by relaxing restrictions on what can be built in residentially zoned areas.
Cary\u2019s village code calls for a maximum density of 3.4 units per acre.
\u201cIf this passes in May, that goes up to 26 units per acre,\u201d Kownick said. \u201cWhat are we going to do? It\u2019s going to completely change the look of our communities.\u201d
Kownick also spoke of the Illinois Freedom of Information Act, and how requests for public documents under the act have become \u201cdaunting\u201d and \u201cout of control\u201d for the village.
Last year, Cary received more than 500 FOIA requests and spent more than $10,000 on requests regarding the Seasons of Cary mixed-use development off Route 31<\/a> alone.
\u201cThat is ridiculous. Think about what other things that we could be doing that take away our staff time to put together these FOIAs,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019re just not necessary. It\u2019s for personal use. It\u2019s for personal vendettas and things, and they don\u2019t use it for the purpose that it was meant to be.\u201d
The 360-apartment development was approved in October, despite strong opposition from neighboring residents. Construction is scheduled to start in May, with the goal to complete the project by Summer 2030.
Kownick said that the development, which includes 5 acres of retail space, will bring $2.75 million in impact fee revenue and an estimated $39.6 million in economic impact over 10 years.
Another contentious development proposal calls for single-family homes, townhomes and more than 200 apartment units on the Maplewood school site in downtown Cary.
Kownick said he expects developers to seek zoning approval in May, followed by a board vote for approval in June. If approved, construction could start as early as this summer.
\u201cThis has been on the village\u2019s radar for over 15 years,\u201d he said.
In conjunction with the Maplewood development is the High Road extension project, formerly called the Maplewood Access Road Extension. The village aims to build a road extending from Industrial Drive to the Metra Cary station that would add a full traffic signal at Industrial Drive and Cary-Algonquin Road.
Construction is expected to start next year and be completed in winter 2028. Maplewood is expected to be completed then, too, Kownick said.<\/p>\n

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Cary Mayor Mark Kownick used the recent annual state of the village address to warn residents of possible state legislation that would put substantial limits on local control of things from housing to parking.Kownick, serving his fourth term as the village\u2019s top elected official, spoke at the business roundtable hosted by the Cary-Grove Area Chamber […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7204,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-7203","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-politics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7203","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7203"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7203\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}