Palos Park Mayor Nicole Milovich-Walters is concerned about the state’s BUILD initiative and is asking for residents to help out.
Illinois’ Building Up Illinois Developments was a hot topic for the mayor at the April 13 village council meeting as the council unanimously voted for a resolution to preserve local authority when it comes to deciding land use and zoning issues.
The state has other ideas and wants to take over those decisions, Milovich-Walters said.
“In Governor (JB) Pritzker’s State of the State Address on Feb. 18, 2026, he outlined a significant housing initiative,” she said. “It would be a broad preemption of local authority for land use and zoning.”
She added that it is supposed to solve an affordability solution to housing issues allegedly caused by local zoning and land use policies.
“So, it’s basically saying that whatever each town does with their zoning – they are the cause of no-affordable housing,” she said.
“The bill proposes state-wide zoning standards, including minimum lot sizes, would mandate increased residential density allowances, legalize accessory dwelling units, limit minimum parking requirements and create a statewide formula to impact fees.”
With the big decisions out of their hands, Palos Park officials would be at the mercy of what the state wants to do, which is concerning to the mayor.
“This bill plan would broadly pre-empt local authority on issues that are currently, entirely local,” she said. “If somebody tore down that house across the street, they can say, ‘We’re going to put four townhomes there and we just decided that’s where it should go.’
Or ‘we found some land and we’re going to build a bunch of apartments and we’re not checking with the schools if you can handle all of those kids. Your water system can handle that. Your waste system can handle it.’ ’’
The BUILD project is not a done deal, but Milovich-Walters said that there are seven bills on the docket for the spring legislative session in Springfield.
Those bills are House Bill 5626 – Housing Omnibus, Senate Bill 4060 – Middle Housing, Senate Bill 4061 – Building Code, Senate Bill 4062 – Impact Mitigation Fees, Senate Bill 4063 – Building Plans/Inspection, Senate Bill 4064 – Residential Parking and Senate Bill 4071 – Accessory Dwelling Units.
“The village, as well as other communities and the Illinois Municipal League oppose each of these bills as each contains unfunded mandates and/or preemptions of local authority,” Milovich-Walters said.
The mayor is asking residents to go to her Facebook page, where a sample letter and the addresses of the village’s representatives are provided.
For those without access to Facebook, she suggests emailing her at mayor@palospark.org,
“It’s important that all of our voices are heard,” she said. “The village obviously is sending letters. But when your representatives get flooded with emails from you – their constituents – maybe they will listen.
“Your voices are really, really important.”