The Barrington Hills Observer

This Monday evening, November 14, 2011, the Zoning Board of Appeals will again take up the controversial subject of large-scale commercial horse boarding in our Village.  Numerous proposals have been floated, rejected, and then floated again in recent memory.  Who knows what will come out of Village Hall after Monday’s meeting.  Here is an idea: If large horse boarding businesses are going to be allowed in our Village, at the expense of our quiet residential character, they should pay fees and taxes as businesses.

As we have expressed before (see Veni, Vidi, Vici), commercial horse boarding should be limited to quiet home occupations in order to preserve the core residential (that is, non-commercial) character of our Village.  But as we have seen, our Village leaders, particularly President Robert Abboud, cannot be trusted to protect neighbors’ rights or the quiet enjoyment of our private property and to enforce our home occupation limits on business activity (see Is Bob Abboud a Liar?  You Decide).  We have no reason to believe the ZBA, hand picked and appointed by Abboud to serve his own political interests, can or will do any better to protect property values and neighborhood peace by enforcing existing ordinances, which severely restrict business activity in the Village.

A recent decision of the Illinois Appellate Court in the Oakwood Farm case confirms that large boarding businesses are illegal under current Village law.  President Abboud’s decision to ignore that court ruling; his refusal to enforce current law; and his decision to seek no fines whatsoever to recover the massive legal fees wasted in that case speak volumes about his character to lead.  Not surprisingly, Abboud’s most recent Village Newsletter omits these salient facts, while trumpeting his purported efforts to protect zoning and limit legal fees to a staggering 10% of the Village budget.

If commercial horse boarding businesses will not be limited through the enforcement of current law, there is an alternative—to impose recurring fees and business taxes on commercial boarding operations.  To be clear, we object to the expansion of commercial boarding.  But if large businesses profiting from our glorious Village are allowed to exist, they should pay fees and taxes commensurate with the drain they cause on our Village resources and our quiet way of life. 

We all know that large commercial horse boarding operations cause an increase in pollution, noise, traffic, congestion, use of Village roads and other resources.  The special use permit process now being contemplated by the ZBA to regulate commercial boarding will only add to the expense and administrative burden placed on our small Village.  And, many commercial boarding customers are not Barrington Hills residents, yet they benefit (without contribution) from our Village environs.

Given the lack of credible leadership in our Village, there seems to be no way to stop the expansion of commercial horse boarding businesses before the next President and Trustee election.  If large-scale commercial boarding will be legalized in the meantime, those businesses should pay recurring fees and taxes as businesses.  Only this will place a limit (an economic one), on the growth of commercialization that Abboud and his political cronies are pushing through Village Hall.

It is one thing to sell out residents for a special interest group.  It’s quite another to do it so obviously and for so little.

     – The Observer