Sitting ducks

Our Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA) will hold a special public hearing on a relatively new resident’s request to add “Agritourism“ to the list of allowed uses in the R-1 Residential District this evening. We’d like to share what we’ve learned about the resident, and “Agritourism.“

Background

The applicant is a newcomer to Illinois it seems. He closed on his property at 315 Dundee Road on December 30, 2021. A month later, on January 27, 2022, he filed with the Illinois Secretary of State’s office to register a Limited Liability Company (LLC) under the name of, “YAMAMOTO FAMILY FARMS LLC.”

Weeks later (when presumably the ground was still frozen), Yamamoto registered a Facebook account: “Little Ducky Flower Farm.” On May 3, Little Ducky Flower Farm launched an Instagram page.

With his plans progressing so quickly, one might wonder if he happened to check to see if Village Code allowed for his commercial his plans?  Apparently not.

According to Little Ducky Flower Farm website, they sell bulbs, t-shirts, wool products, ducks and sheep and, of course, flowers.  Marketing of Little Ducky Flower Farm has included television coverage on WGN9, CBS2 Chicago and NBC5.

Country Magazine featured Little Ducky Flower Farm in a piece and there was a “Lunch and Learn” seminar at Barrington’s White House conducted on September 28th of last year.

Things progressed quickly with marketing and sales based at 315 Dundee Road, however the  Village issued a stop to it with a cease and desist order in May of this year. Tonight our Zoning Board of Appeals has been asked to consider “Agritourism“ businesses to be allowed in our R-1 Residential community.

So, what is agritourism?

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Library defines it as follows:

“Agritourism is a form of commercial enterprise that links agricultural production and/or processing with tourism to attract visitors onto a farm, ranch, or other agricultural business for the purposes of entertaining or educating the visitors while generating income for the farm, ranch, or business owner.”

The National Agricultural Law Center cites some examples of agritourism, including:

• pumpkin picking patches;
• corn mazes;
• U-Pick operations;
• petting and feeding zoos;
• hay rides;
• cut-your-own Christmas tree farms;
• dude ranches;
• demonstration farms;
• agricultural museums;
• living history farms;
• on-farm farmers’ markets;
• winery tours and wine tasting;
• rural bed & breakfasts; and
• garden tours.

In the “Agritourism” filing submitted to our ZBA (seen here), the applicant has proposed a plan for parking for cars and presumably other “vehicles” seen below:

He has also posted a “Roadmap” for his zoning approval plans for the business on his website:

Our thoughts

It’s unclear how or when this homeowner communicated his plans with the Village or when the Village became aware of what was occurring at 315 Dundee Road. The answer to both it appears is too late, and that is unfortunate. Now it is clear that the property owner is asking the ZBA to forgive the violation(s) and allow him to reopen his “Boutique Flower Farm,” business.

Our Comprehensive Plan states, “Barrington Hills is a unique single-family residential community….” Little Ducky Flower Farm’s commercial operations did not and will not fit that description. And, if our ZBA approves the applicant’s requests, we fear homeowners in the Village might become sitting ducks to commercialization of neighboring properties.

We implore the members of our Zoning Board to deny this application, thus protecting our residential community.

– The Observer

Related: “Special Zoning Board of Appeals meeting scheduled Tuesday,” “Special Zoning Board of Appeals Public Hearing August 20th”