According to the Village website calendar, tomorrow evening’s Zoning Board of Appeals meeting has also been cancelled. Apparently some issues regarding the Open Meetings Act called into question sufficient public notice. According to the Village website:
“The cancellation is prompted by Village concern that the published notice of the scheduled public hearing relative to the ZBA-recommended Horse Board Text Amendment could be deemed defective. To ensure compliance with Illinois law relative to such notice, the ZBA has determined to cancel the meetings, and to schedule the public hearing for a date certain in December 2014. Public notice of the public hearing regarding the ZBA-recommended text amendment will be provided.”
In layman’s terms the notice for the November 10th public hearing was not published in time in the Daily Herald.
If this series of “hearings” was truly legitimate, objective and open, the cabal(ZBA Chairman Judy Freeman, Member Kurt Anderson, Member Karen Rosen, Member Clark Benkendorf) would not be in such a hurry to ram this through with inadequate notice, apparently for the benefit of only one landowner, Benjamin B. Le Compte. Their incompetence is glaring – so many mistakes, all of which could ultimately prove very costly to the Village in litigation, if allowed to continue. Haste does make waste!
perhaps a group of concerned citizens should plan the appropriate legal strategy now should Freeman get her way.
LECOMPTACARE (Anderson II). . . . where all residents of VBH are being asked to surrender fundamental residential zoning rights for the benefit of a few existing and future profiteers. It is not what large scale boarding operations are necessarily doing today although a valid concern to some but what LECOMPTACARE allows existing boarding operations and operations not yet in existence to do in the future.
Since the CP says VBH is an equestrian village, in the opinion of radical equestrian fringe, it is your obligation as a homeowner to surrender fundamental zoning rights (right to peaceful and quiet enjoyment of your home) which have protected VBH residents under village code for more than 40 years.
While concerns of all can be addressed through “special use” allowing these business operations to co-exist adjacent to homeowners subject to VBH government oversight, adjacent residential input and redress, pre-approval and monitoring guided by objective guidelines intended to protect residential standards of living; not business opportunity. Should an operation fail to meet these standards, VBH government should reserve the right to fine, suspend and ultimately pull the plug on the operation after due process!
Yes, maintaining residential standards and character of this village should be paramount. This is what will protect property values and quality of family life; not submission to business interests who threaten to sell or disconnect if they do not get their way. In the end, how much is looking at these commercial operations from the road worth to you? Is it worth the peace and tranquility you currently enjoy, your neighbors or friends in VBH enjoy? Is it worth sacrificing fundamental residential zoning standards given to each of us under VBH code when we bought our homes here?
For this VBH resident, this is too great a price to pay. I say if you cannot exist in VBH under the framework of existing rules and laws (which were in place when you bought here) then maybe you should consider developing or disconnecting your property. (Development will bring much needed tax revenue thanks to Meroni’s mismanagement of funds allocated to roads or Gohl convincing residents in 2004 that removing police pension from IMRF would be financially neutral to tax payers of VBH.)
These operations should be grateful most of us are willing to agree to their continued operation under the legal fabric of “special use”. Yet greed and arrogance by Chairman Freeman and 3 other ZBA members who made the decision early on to hijack the issue to the extent of alienating 3 Board members, (which including denying or unreasonably delaying material information) and going so far as bastardizing Village legislative process in order to obtain their preordained outcome for benefit of their special interests.
What I mean by “objective” residential standards are common sense rules and guidelines of courtesy to residential neighbors so everyone can maximize enjoyment of their property, whether your primary reason for being in VBH is to make a home, make a profit, or combination of the two. Business in VBH should never be on equal footing with residences, whether it be “home occupation” or “big commercial horse boarding”. Yet, LECOMPTACARE with negligible operating requirements, offers minimal protection and rights to adjacent residents, the community as a whole and VBH government.
LECOMPTACARE would be the first of its kind, slipping major business activity under the definition of “Agriculture” section of the local municipal zoning code permitting commercial enterprise to occur anywhere a proprietor and land speculator desire within municipal limits. They can do this anywhere on what has been classified on VBH zoning map as “residential.” This means anywhere, who knows, maybe in the future, one these operations will pop up next to you. This begs the question, if a business proprietor and land speculator can to this, is VBH any longer residential? I say not, by government fiat VBH will be mixed use, residential and business.
Folks, I will say it again until I am blue in the face, LECOMPTACARE is MADNESS. If you care about your homestead and your neighbors’ homestead, you better do everything you can to stop this CRAZY TRAIN in its tracks. This is a takeover of the VBH code and in time, will alter VBH, paving the way for more large “ungoverned” commercial horse boarding business as well as other commercial enterprise. You allow this to occur, the camel’s nose is under the tent.
Other than LECOMPTACARE, I challenge anyone to find a municipality in the entire U.S. who would allow commercial business to operate in residential zoned area without application of “special use” (Bull Valley, Mettawa, Bartlett, Homer Glen, McHenry County, Kane County and Will County) or in the alternative specific designated zoned areas on the municipal zoning map (Wayne and Johnsburg). VBH is a residential community” which always supported equestrian lifestyle, that is if you could afford it. It was never intended VBH residents subsidize equestrian lifestyle for others (inside or outside VBH) who cannot afford it or who want to profit on this activity from their neighbors and the outside world.
VBH does not exist by mistake but through herculean effort of many people who were intelligeant, proactive and stubborn. The efforts of all those who have preceded us could be lost because of an AGENDA driven by a misguided few on the ZBA; an acountant, tax lawyer, Karen Rosene and Bechendorf. Do you want to put the future of VBH zoning in the hands of these 4 along with the conflicted BOT 3, Harrington and Gohl? Because if this is not stopped, that is what is going to happen.
If you want to help yourself, my first recommendation for those of you who live in an “association” governed by a recorded covenant is review this document. If it does not already prohibit commercial business, you may want to call a special meeting of your board and consider amending this document with language prohibiting anyone domiciled now or in the future in land controlled by the association from engaging in commercial business other than what is already permitted under current VBH code.
David Stieper, ZBA member.
David; Has it ever occurred to you that these fine members of the ZBA are so intellectually impaired that they can’t foresee the traumatic implications of their folly?
Could they be so blinded by their peers in the riding community (both residents and especially non-resident interlopers) that they have lost sight of the obvious?
I just don’t know what to think, but if this passes, we are surely going to lose this village as we know it.
This needs to go to a referendum so that ALL of the town folks will have a say in their futures.
“Only fools rush in” might have been a better title!
isn’t it true that the village president’s and his administration have the responsibility to provide public notice of meetings at least 15 days ahead of the meeting? So if there wasn’t adequate advance notice, this fault falls on Mr. McLaughlin and his administration, doesn’t it?
You’re way off base Lisa. In government and business the ultimate responsibility for providing timely notice of a meeting falls upon the individual who scheduled the meeting. In this case that would be Judy Freeman.
Sure staff at village hall do the agenda postings and submissions for classified ads, but they have already proven to be unreliable with a failed ZBA agenda posting earlier this year. Given that Freeman was already stung once it SHE should have been double checking since then and she obviously failed to do so.
As another commenter pointed out your attempt to cast blame on the president is baseless and clearly politically motivated.
Guess again Lisa. That would fall on Ms. Freeman and Mr. Kosin. Isn’t it so ironic that Mr. McLaughlin is the convenient fall guy when it’s of course the other way around??? Mr. Kosin, you can’t even schedule a proper meeting TWICE?? Why do we pay you again?? If you are that incompetent, why are you still here, Mr. Kosin? Let’s ask the VBOT that very same question? I am very curious as to the answers of Meroni, Messer, Selman et el. Bet I can guess their position……
Lisa: I think it would be impossible for the Village President (Martin McLaughlin) to micro-manage all activities of Village Committee Chairmen and Village employees. The noticing of ZBA meetings, for instance, is the responsibility of the Chairman of the ZBA, Judith Freeman, and the Village Manager, Robert Kosin. If you are trying to establish blame for this one particular defective notice, then you might wish to point your finger at Freeman and Kosin, rather than the Village President. It is obvious that Chairman Freeman is in a huge rush to forward questionable legislation, and has made many, many procedural mistakes in the process, which brings into question her competency as a ZBA Chairman. Perhaps, Lisa, you should do your homework on how municipal government should work, and not ask pointed, uninformed questions for the sake of your obvious agenda! Very transparent!
LeCompteacare will end up just like Obamacare..a bad memory that failed miserably due to lies and gross incompetence.