Barrington Hills is being sued by a group of residents who want the village to tear up the new horse boarding rules just weeks after they were finally approved.
The suit’s plaintiffs, Barrington Hills residents James Drury, Jack Reich and James O’Donnell have long been engaged in a legal dispute with their neighbor Benjamin LeCompte, who operates Oakwood Farms, a horse boarding operation.
The new lawsuit claims that the horse boarding rules should be thrown out because three trustees — Messer, Karen Selman and Patty Meroni — accepted $15,000 in campaign donations from LeCompte in 2011. The candidates returned the donations but received a warning from the State Board of Elections after it was discovered that LeCompte had not been properly identified as the original source of the funds. LeCompte later made the $15,000 donation to the candidates’ Save 5 Acres slate, not to the individual candidates.
Read the full Daily Herald article here.
I would personally like to thank these three gentlemen, particularly Jim Drury, for their efforts to right the wrongs brought on by the Zoning Board and the BOT.
When a village fails to uphold zoning code against a violator (Oakwood), the responsibility to take appropriate action should not fall on a resident (Drury) who has to spend exorbitant amounts of money defending his rights under the code. Even worse is to have amended the code to make violator look “compliant” with a new and obviously influenced code. How can anyone even begin to defend their actions?
If SOS candidates Meroni and Selman are reelected, any one of us could be faced with this dilemma and significant financial drain since they appear to side with campaign contributors and supporters according to their actions in office.
Thank you, Jim. Your efforts are respected and valued by more residents than you’ll ever know.
The sleeping villagers are awakening and the three musketeers are sounding the alarm!
Thank you gentelmen for a job well done. The village owes you.
DAILY HERALD . . . . FORGET ABOUT THE HORSE FOR A MINUTE AND CONSIDER JUST FOR A MOMENT THAT MAYBE THE VBH TAXPAYER IS A VICTIM OF A “QUID PRO QUO”
As in the past, the Daily Herald tells only part of the story and even that is misleading. It is the illegal-secret 3 campaign donations to Messer, Meroni and Selman from LeCompte coupled with the Abboud-Schuman Letter, 34 days later which rightfully raises public suspicion of VBH political corruption by former village president and 3 BOT forming the basis of Count II of the Complaint.
The unprecedented Schuman Letter magically erased overnight 3 years of successful litigation by VBH against LeCompte/ Oakwood Farm costing VBH taxpayers $182,000. Thereafter, VBH under Abboud inexplicably abandoned the lawsuit requiring an aggrieved adjacent landowner James Drury to step into the shoes of VBH at his own expense. For this inaction by VBH, we, the taxpayer of VBH, and Mr. Drury are entitled to an explanation from SOS BOT, Messer, Meroni, Selman and Gohl but rather than explain, these BOT continue to remain “mum” with SOS BOT members Meroni and Selman adding to the insult by telling taxpayers on their SOS website to “Consider the Horse”. It is time to consider the taxpayer and the role SOS BOT Meroni and Selman played in this transaction.
Although having abandoned the lawsuit, Abboud and BOT authorized payment to Village attorney Burke-Warren in an amount in excess of $7,000 to do nothing but sit in court and monitor the Drury/LeCompte courtroom proceedings and report back to Abboud outside public view. Anderson II just compounded the situation “22 square miles fold” by expanding Oakwood Farm illegal commercial boarding operation standards to all of us in VBH who live on 5 acres or more.
Count I of the Complaint challenges Anderson II on grounds of improper notice. By altering zoning in VBH R-1 zoning district, this count claims every landowner of a 5 acre estate or more in VBH was entitled to “personal notice” of this change in classification proposed under Anderson II from exclusively “Estate Residential” to Anderson II’s proposed “Estate Residential and Commercial Use”. The argument is a due process concern under the 5th Amendment to the United States Constitution requiring every R-1 property owner be personally notified of every ZBA and BOT proceedings intended to change R-1 zoning to mixed R-1 and commercial use, which is what Anderson II did.
Count III of the Complaint makes the substantive claim against Anderson II that by changing the Floor Area Ratio (“FAR”) requirements contained in the VBH zoning code for the limited purpose of “commercial horse boarding” and in effect repealing the requirement under ZBA code that the residence no longer be the “primary (largest) structure” when it comes to boarding of horses, BOT and ZBA exceeded its legal authority by altering R-1 zoning District into a “new” combined zoning district of “R-1 and commercial use”. ZBA and BOT did this through a series of condensed special meetings over a very short period of time so VBH resident could not catch on to what village government was doing to their property until it was too late.
The Daily Herald improperly states Jack Reich and James O’Donnell are neighbors of Oakwood Farm and Drury. What Daily Herald should of said is messrs. Reich, O’Donnell and Drury justifiably initiated a lawsuit challenging the legality of Anderson II which by BOT fiat changed the zoning of every R-1 parcel in VBH (96%) to allow big business use to coexist in this district. Anderson II has turned VBH FAR requirements on its head permitting commercial boarding structures on 5 acre parcels to exceed prior limitations by 4x the size. FAR requirements which have honorably served VBH residents for 50 years.
Anderson II opens the door for “modular homes” or “trailers” with foundations, well and septic to be built on the same 5 acre parcel with a 10,000 square feet or more barn which boards 1 horse or more. Anderson II jeopardizes the longterm sustainability of “residential estate living” (“McMansions”) in VBH by allowing an undesirable commercial activity with little or no village control or supervision to operate anywhere in VBH 5 acre zoning district.
For larger parcels, it opens the door for Wal-Mart sized commercial boarding operations without any actual oversight by VBH. Anderson II has done away with VBH R-1 zoning allowing commercial business to co-exist in parity with residential estate living anywhere in the village which is zoned R-1 or 5-acres. No one in VBH is safe from this business intrusion and no doubt will further decrease property values. For instance, on Oakwood Farm Anderson II expands FAR requirement from about 38,000 sq/ft of commercial structure(s) under roof to about 234,000 square feet.
Since the Schuman Letter, the issue has never been about “horseboarding” but turned on a dime to “political corruption” and subsequent “cover-up” culminating in the coup d’etat by passage of Anderson II. The issue is whether former village president, 3 BOT members and certain other VBH equestrian luminaries colluded together to exchange village zoning laws in return for 3 secret campaign donations of $5,000 each to 3 candidates running for VBH BOT under the political moniker “Save 5 Acres”.
For some inexplicable reason, this is the story the Daily Herald refuses to print.
SOS!! HELP!!!
Mr. Stieper’s message above is extremely compelling. It shouts out horrific issues with the Anderson Text Amendment! SOS and buddy Abboud claim that anyone that’s not them wants to eliminate 5 acre zoning. Yet, the Anderson Amendment that they support destroys residential rights which includes every equestrian homeowner. Why did they support a change in law that destroyed size restrictions of all commercial structures? These issues are ENORMOUS.
Why aren’t Judy Freeman or Kurt Anderson disputing Mr. Stieper’s facts in this public forum? They suppressed all this comment during the process. Without facts to contradict Mr. Stieper, what are we to believe?
It’s very simple Alice…Freeman and Anderson aren’t disputing Stieper’s facts because they can’t, he is right.
This is a complex issue and it took me and my neighbors a long time to digest what they are trying to do to the town. As a former realtor I can see that we are already being affected by this consciousless group of self servers.
It turns my stomach when I see what is going on, in this our little homestead.
Thank God for the people that are willing to stand up to this!
Does it occur to Anyone that Freeman and others do not engage on This site btcause it is nothing but a gossip site?@! Daily Herald doesn’t report what Steiper wants because he blogs his own nonsense rather than FACT. IF you want to know truths, citizens, then CALL YOUR BOT and ask them!@!! I am occasionally sent this column when others can no longer stomach what lies you all are being fed, SHOW UP AT THE BOT MEETINGS YOURSELF, and see/hear for yourself. Are YOU a lemming or are you a thinker like you were when you moved to VBH?! I attend every meeting when I am in town and what you read on these pages is out right LIES and distortions! THINK RESIDENTS!
Dear Denise;
Getting worried I see?
April will be the final arbitrator of village politics.
Thank you P Denise. Seriously. Thank you for the conviction to be heard.
Have witnessed on this site many facts and expressions of opinion. Ms. Freeman and others have been begged on this site to correct the facts and engage in dialogue.
These same questions are asked at every BOT and ZBA meeting and none are ever addressed. Public rules don’t allow for dialogue and questions asked are never responded to at meetings or in response to writing. Seems to many that Mr. Stieper has the conviction to speak his view of the facts and our BOT and ZBA are ducking the issues.
For instance, can the BOT respond to some of the following:
1) Why did we fall short of the Roads and Bridges plan to repair these roads 9 out of the last 10 years? The budget was increased to support it, but we spend less than that plan. Even Joe Messer stated at a BOT meeting that our roads “suck.”
2) Can Fritz Gohl (liaison) and Save 5 Acres (SOS) explain the facts associated with the Police Pension Fund and the enormous difference in spend/obligation caused by that Abboud administration decision? This is costing us millions and the facts never seem to appear.
3) Why were the legal fees spent on the Sears litigation for no reason? How much was wasted?
4) Mr. Stieper raised many issues about the Anderson/LeCompte Text Amendment’s impacts on residential zoning and floor area ratio impacts on this site – if true, they are devastating. Can someone address if they are incorrect?
5) Several have stepped up to ask why the Village hasn’t paid our attorneys. The claim that the President does not have the right to appoint counsel is blatantly false. Telling that untruth over and over again is building on the misrepresentation. The BOT seeks their counsel, but doesn’t pay them. Why? and Give us a straight answer.
6) Can the BOT please address why they voted to repeal the President’s right to appoint special counsel to investigate allegations of improprieties in the Text Amendment process that is a violation of the Illinois constitution?
7) After the police Chief (retired and current) pleaded the BOT to make a decision on the 911 future, why did the Village BOT led by Harrington, Meroni, and Selman vote to delay a decision that is putting the Village in serious safety exposure? Is this decision politically motivated? The facts are all in and have been for months.
8) And many more … It’s just that the BOT and ZBA refuse to address questions that have been asked for years
And who are the lemmings?
P-have you ever heard the expression assume makes an ass out of you and me? Thank you for illustrating that so well. I have gone to many BOT meetings, actually too many to count.I think that Messer, Meroni, Harrington, Selman, et el are SERIOUSLY DISTURBED if they think that we have 3.5 hours to waste with NOTHING ACCOMPLISHED. You want to talk lies? How about this? Everything that comes out of the Booby Puppets is a lie. That’s why these meetings take 4 hours and nothing gets done. My, I see that you are angry. Marty won, Colleen won and now Brian. Michelle and Bryan will win. So sorry that’s so difficult for you to understand. Nothing but facts here. Judy Freeman doesn’t have the time to come on here as she has her own, much more serious issues to worry about. But thanks for reading! Come again.
P. Denise — It’s nice that you want to keep your neighbors and fellow residents informed on what’s happening in our village government through all your scurrilous email blasts.
Do you remember this one you sent out in 2008? My, my, how things have changed.
—————
Sent: Monday, June 23, 2008 4:32:35 PM
Subject: RE: Big barns
Better READ the email to me below!!
We are getting screwed over again!!
IF any of you can attend…..PLEASE DO and SPEAK UP!!! A huge barn like this on their property AGAIN makes a mockery of our laws not to mention traffic complications, TONS OF POOP and think of wbere [sic] all the ground water will have been and going and ALL THAT WHIZ!!!
Please pass this info on to ALL your friends and neighbors who care about the Big Barns issues ASAP!
P Denise
Date: Mon, 23 Jun 2008 10:49:03 -0500
Subject: Big barns
To: pdenisei@
Hi Denise,
The village attorneys have drawn up an agreement with the LeComptes (the airport strip and hanger) across from the riding center. It will allow them to go on with their building plans for an even bigger business. They had asked for 85 more stalls. Can you believe this? Who is minding the store? I guess this residential VBH is now wide open for business.
P……
I think of David Steiper as the Erin Brockovitch of Barrington Hills politics. He will tell the truth even when it is politically unpopular.
David doesn’t take orders from a “hidden puppet master” pulling the strings from his underground laboratory. David hasn’t been caught telling lies to the village voters.
My biggest regret is that David isn’t running for something! It’s hard to find a truly honest man these days….at least in Barrington Hills.
David tells some truths but not ALL of them.
Dear Denise;
Would you mind answering Chris’s points one by one? I would really like to see it from your point of view.
I won’t hold my breath.
.
Bill,, that is a courageous post! Is it true?
P Denise accused comments and posts on this site as “lies and distortions.” Maybe she can explain why she flip flopped from 2008. Might it have anything to do with new direction from Mr. Abboud? Frankly, add another question to Chris’ questions above! Why did Mr. Abboud spend Village money opposing Oakwood Farms and turn completely to support it through the “Schuman Letter”? Why did Chairperson Freemen flip flop from supporting special use in 2011 to suddenly favor supporting Oakwood after the Appellate Court ruled against them.
Mr. McLaughlin called for a special investigation into alleged improprieties with the Text Amendment process. Meroni and Selman lead an effort to repeal President’s right for a Special Investigation and then vote to pay the investigator $-0 per hours. Both acts appear to be unconstitutional.
The stench of cover up is in the air.
Alice, It is 100% true and verifiable. She sends out a lot of garbage to dozens and dozens of people, but most of us stopped buying it a long time ago. In the emails, you never see a document referenced, only her opinions and second-hand ranting from Former Fearless Leader.
We’re smart enough to see through all of it now.