Audio recordings from a special Zoning Board of Appeals public hearing on November 9th are available for review on the Village website. The link to the menu of audio recordings edited by agenda topic can be accessed by clicking here.
The purpose of the meeting was to hear testimony from residents regarding a proposed change to zoning codes returning commercial horse boarding to the Home Occupation Ordinance temporarily to provide the Zoning Board members time to craft more appropriate codes than those in the 2015 Anderson II codes.
Residents spent about two hours providing testimony with varying opinions, both for and against, regarding reverting to the Home Occupation Ordinance.
The developer of Barrington Hills Farm in unincorporated McHenry County read a prepared statement, after which he was once again asked to document the “clique of area residents associated with high density commercial housing development,” he referred to in a letter to all Village residents last July (seen here).
Once again, this witness refused to provide that documentation as can be heard here, but listening closely to his initial response to the question, one can hear, ”There’s no documents.”
The balance of the testimony provided little new evidence the board hadn’t already heard since they began this process back in June. The link to the beginning of the remarks can be accessed here.
The board spent about 45-minutes discussing the testimony they’d heard and expressing their own opinions regarding the Anderson II code and what should be done with it. This was in addition to the nearly three hour meeting they’d held on October 17th covering this same topic.
One member referred to it as a “loaded gun sitting on a chair” on more than one occasion. Others phrased their concerns over the Anderson II language differently, but ultimately the board voted 6-1 to recommend the Board of Trustees repeal Anderson II and reinstate Home Occupation Ordinance codes to manage horse boarding operations.
The recording of the discussion and vote can be accessed here.
The “developer of Barrington Hills Farm in unincorporated McHenry County” had better put up or shut up before long if he has any hope of establishing any credibility beyond the “Riding Clan Clique” of members who seem to fawn over him since he’s spending money. The “Clan” is notoriously cheap and they gather like moths around a light bulb anytime someone is funding their cause.
So let’s have it. Who are the “clique of area residents associated with high density housing development” already?