Define expansion




We appreciate the community welcoming a synagogue in its midst, and we are not looking to change the bucolic nature of Oak Park which brought so many of us to this glorious neighborhood.

But in a recent editorial, The Acorn editor described Chabad of Oak Park’s occupancy request as an “expansion” four different times. Makes it sound like we’re building a school, new temple, hundreds of homes and a golf course.

The actual fact is that Chabad is not looking to “expand” its land. The new permit request is a reasonable update to a 16-year-old “maximum occupancy” number so that the new number can reflect the reality of our current membership for only four hours on a Saturday.

Oak Park Unified High School District added 273 brand-new students (many from out of district) this year, and that new number of 4,008 students is a regular everyweekday occupancy.

And yet The Acorn did not describe this influx of students in a residential neighborhood as “an expansion.” We would hope to be judged equally.

Just like the schools, there is room for others on our existing property, and we’re only looking for an every-now-and-then maximum occupancy.

I dare say that the new students are bringing a lot more car trips to our community on a daily basis that Chabad would ever bring on a Saturday morning. There is no negative impact to our request, and there have been no recent complaints from neighbors, despite the editor’s claims.

Please refrain from calling our request “an expansion.” There’s no patio request. Just an occupancy request. That “E” word only inflames the rumors of a handful of opponents trying to create a firestorm out of a fairly standard permit update and wastes editorial space in The Acorn. Douglas Kruschen Oak Park



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