The ePacket agenda containing links to most documents to be discussed during Monday evening’s Village Board meeting has been posted. To access the ePacket link, click here.
Archive for the ‘OMA’ Category
September 28th Village Board meeting ePacket agenda posted
Posted in Accidents, BACOG, Building Department, Cook, County, Crime, Cuba Rd Bridge, ePacket Agendas, Finance Committee, Financial Reports, Heritage and Environs Committee, Minutes, OMA, Plan Commission, Police Reports, Public Safety, Road construction, Roads & Bridges Committee, Roads and Bridges, Special Use Permits, VBHPD, Village Attorney, Village Board, Village Code, Well Water Quality, Zoning Board on September 27, 2015| Leave a Comment »
September 28th Village Board meeting agenda posted
Posted in Agendas, BACOG, Building Department, Cook, County, Cuba Rd Bridge, Finance Committee, Heritage and Environs Committee, Land Use, OMA, Pension Funding, Plan Commission, Police Reports, Public Safety, Road construction, Roads & Bridges Committee, VBHPD, Village Attorney, Village Board, Village Code, Well Water Quality, Zoning Board on September 25, 2015| Leave a Comment »
The Village has released the agenda for Monday evening’s Village Board meeting. Some of the topics for discussion include:
- [Vote] Approving the Execution of an IGA with the County of Cook for Improvements to Brinker Road from County Line Road to Rte. 62 Res. 15-
- [Vote] Concurring with the IL Department of Transportation’s Award to Copenhaver Construction of Gilberts, IL for Purposes of the Cuba Road Bridge Repair Work Res. 15-
- [Vote] Establishing the Hiring Standards for Part-Time Officers Ord. 15-
- [Vote] Treasurers Position
The audio recordings from the September 23rd special meeting held at Countryside School have not yet been released, but attendees seem to agree that no new ground was really covered regarding the recently enacted Commercial Horse Boarding amendment.
For the most part, the same residents participated as have in the past in either written or spoken public comments, with none of them changing their minds. Those in favor of a settlement of the lawsuit cited aspects of the code they found unsuitable for residential zoned districts, as well as irregularities in the process. Those opposed to settlement mostly spoke of the importance of horse boarding in the Village with little or no support of specific aspects of the new code that are would be beneficial to the community as a whole.
A copy of the agenda can be viewed here.
Special Village Board meeting reminder
Posted in Animal Welfare, BH Polo Club, Building Department, Commercial Horse Boarding, Conflict of interest, Deception, Equestrian Commission, Ethics, FRVPC, Horse Boarding, Land Use, LeCompte/Anderson Commercial Horse boarding amendment, Legal Expenses, OMA, Politics, Real Estate, Riding Club of Barrington Hills, Village Attorney, Village Board, Village Code, Zoning Board on September 21, 2015| 2 Comments »
The Village Board of Trustees will be holding a special meeting this Wednesday evening, September 23rd, at Countryside Elementary School at 6:30 PM. The purpose of the meeting is to hear public “comment on the potential settlement” of a lawsuit filed against the Village over the enactment of the Commercial Horse Boarding Amendment to our Village Code.
If our Village Board chooses to settle the suit, it is our understanding the boarding amendment will likely be voided, and work will need to begin on drafting new codes. If the suit is not settled and proceeds in the courts, we’ll likely be faced with legal expenses for a protracted period of time (likely years) defending the amended code.
Those wishing to submit their comments in advance of the meeting can do so via email to the Village Clerk at clerk@vbhil.gov through tomorrow, September 22nd. Comments can also be dropped off at Village Hall, or faxed to 847-551-3050.
While we’re no longer obligated to provide our addresses in written or public comment, we believe it’s important to at least indicate whether you are a resident or not along with your comments.
Also, for those unfamiliar with the Commercial Horse Boarding code amendment in question, our perspectives from December of last year were summarized in “Our views on the latest horse boarding text amendment proposal.” Click here to read that article which cites our major points of contention with the amendment.
So why is the Village being sued (again) over commercial horse boarding?
Posted in BH Polo Club, Commercial Horse Boarding, Conflict of interest, Equestrian Commission, Ethics, FRVPC, Horse Boarding, Land Use, LeCompte/Anderson Commercial Horse boarding amendment, Legal Expenses, OMA, OP/Ed, Politics, Real Estate, Riding Club of Barrington Hills, Village Board, Village Code, Zoning Board on September 18, 2015| 9 Comments »
The simple answer to the question of why we’re being sued is that some elected and appointed Village officials put us in this position last December when they approved a commercial horse boarding amendment to our code which clearly favored one party over another in a private lawsuit that did not involve our Village.
In order to fully understand the rationale behind the suit, residents need to understand the history of one commercial horse boarding operation in the Village that has, in our opinion, consumed an inordinate amount of time, energy and taxpayers’ money for too long now. The best way to illustrate this is with excerpts from the complaint against the Village as follows:
- The issue of commercial horse boarding in Barrington Hills has been litigated in the Circuit Court of Cook County in two separate cases and has been subject to two Appellate Court opinions.
- Both of those proceedings involved the large-scale commercial horse boarding operation conducted by Benjamin LeCompte at Oakwood Farms which is located at 362 Bateman Road.
- The first lawsuit was initiated by Benjamin LeCompte against the Village in Benjamin B. LeCompte, et al. v. Zoning Board of Appeals For The Village of Barrington Hills, et al. (Civil Case No. 09 CH 00934) (“First Lawsuit”). In the First Lawsuit, LeCompte appealed the Village Board’s issuance in January 2008 of a cease and desist order* which directed LeCompte to stop operating a large-scale commercial horse boarding operation.
- The Circuit Court, in a decision dated January 15, 2010, held that LeCompte’s large-scale commercial horse boarding operation conducted at Oakwood Farm was not in compliance with the Village Zoning Code. LeCompte appealed that decision.
- Although the Village prevailed in that case and the subsequent appeal by LeCompte, the Village did absolutely nothing to enforce that judgment or to enforce its Zoning Ordinance. The Village did not even levy a fine against LeCompte.
- On December 17, 2010, Attorney Steven Schulte, counsel for Drury, directed a letter to the Village attorney requesting that “the Village take all necessary actions to immediately enforce the cease and desist order by no later than December 31, 2010 (almost three years after its issuance) and take all steps necessary to recover all fines assessed against the LeComptes since January 10, 2008.” Again, no action was taken by the Village.
- On January 31, 2011, Drury initiated a lawsuit in the Circuit Court of Cook County (James Drury III v. Benjamin B. LeCompte, et al (Civil Case No.11 CH 3852)) against Benjamin LeCompte pursuant to the Adjacent Landowner Statute, 65 ILCS 5/11-13-15, (“Second Lawsuit” or “Drury- (Michael) McLaughlin [Note: no relation to the current Village President] Lawsuit”), seeking an order enjoining LeCompte from operating a commercial horse boarding operation at Oakwood Farms in violation of Village zoning laws.
- Five months later, on June 30, 2011, the Appellate Court affirmed the decision of the Circuit Court in the First Lawsuit. In that decision, Benjamin B. LeCompte, et al. v. Zoning Board of Appeals For The Village of Barrington Hills, et al., Case No. 1-10-0423 (later published September 21, 2011 as 2011 IL App (1st) 100423) (“LeCompte I”), the Appellate Court held that the commercial horse boarding operation of LeCompte at Oakwood Farm violated the Zoning Ordinances of the Village; held that the use of the land at Oakwood Farm for the commercial boarding of horses is not agriculture as defined in section 5-2-1 of the Village Zoning Code; and that since the commercial boarding of horses is not agriculture under section 5¬5-2(A) of the Zoning Code, it is not a permitted use in a R-1 zoned district in the Village.
- In James J Drury III et al. v. Benjamin LeCompte et al., 2014 IL App (1St) 121894¬U (“LeCompte II”), a copy which is attached as Exhibit D, the Appellate Court for the second time addressed large-scale commercial horse boarding at Oakwood Farm. In that case, the Appellate Court reversed the trial court’s dismissal of the Drury-McLaughlin Lawsuit. The Court discarded the home occupancy defense advanced by LeCompte and remanded the case to the trial court for further proceedings.
- Shortly after the remand in LeCompte II, LeCompte initiated a petition for a text amendment in June 2014 with the Village to permit large-scale commercial horse boarding as a permitted use in the residential zoning districts in the Village (“LeCompte Text Amendment“). LeCompte’s text amendment called for retroactivity back to June 26, 2006.
- The Commercial Horse Boarding Text Amendment which passed in December 2014 is very similar to the LeCompte Text Amendment.
- The Village Board enacted into law, over the Village President’s veto, on February 23, 2015, the Commercial Horse Boarding Text Amendment that is the subject of this action.
*[It should be noted that the cease and desist order issued to Oakwood Farms came as a result of complaints from a number of neighboring property owners.]
There are many more events we could detail since the first complaints were voiced regarding the operations at Oakwood Farms such as campaign donation disclosures, a letter purportedly authored by the Village Code Enforcement Officer to the owner of Oakwood Farms, etc., but for the sake of brevity, we’ve chosen not to repeat what’s been chronicled in these pages already.
What these and other points do bear out is the prior administration and previous village Boards did little to nothing to enforce the codes when it came to Oakwood Farms, and essentially, people like Jim Drury had to proceed through the court system on their own at great expense. When it became apparent Drury was succeeding with an April 2014 ruling, a flawed, conflicted and accelerated process quickly began to derail his hard fought efforts.
Settling the suit would allow for a more measured process to begin addressing all scales of horse boarding in Barrington Hills. Not settling will undoubtedly lead to years of unnecessary legal expenses to defend an ordinance that had no business being passed in the first place.
September 2nd Equestrian Commission meeting agenda posted
Posted in Agendas, Animal Welfare, BH Polo Club, Commercial Horse Boarding, Conflict of interest, Equestrian Commission, Ethics, FRVPC, Horse Boarding, Land Use, LeCompte/Anderson Commercial Horse boarding amendment, OMA, Politics, Real Estate, Riding Club of Barrington Hills, Village Board, Village Code, Zoning Board on September 2, 2015| 1 Comment »
The Equestrian Commission will meet for the first time in over a year tonight at 7:00 PM at Village Hall. A copy of their agenda can be viewed here.
The last time the Equestrian Commission met was on Friday, August 1, 2014 in special session. The purpose of that meeting was to review and comment on two of four commercial horse boarding text amendment proposals to modify our Village code.
The primary focus of that evening was the proposal submitted by the owner of Oakwood Farms, LLC, Barry LeCompte, and another submitted by the Riding Club of Barrington Hills.
The ePacket agenda for tonight’s meeting includes minutes for approval from that August 2014 meeting. These minutes reveal a number of text change and deletion recommendations from the original proposed ordinance for the Zoning Board of Appeals to consider, and, in fact, stated, “To clarify, the redline version below is what we recommend the Village adopt.”
The most important deletion recommended to the Oakwood proposal was striking the effective retroactivity of the proposed code to June 26, 2006, which coincided with the Village Board at that time putting all horse boarding operations, regardless of scale, under the Home Occupation Ordinance.
We find no record of the Equestrian Commission’s recommendation to the Zoning Board (or to the Board of Trustees) in any meeting agendas or packets. Nor is there any mention of them in published audio recordings, so we must ask what happened to this commission’s considered and unanimously approved change recommendations? Why have they not seen sunshine until now, over a year later?
Furthermore, why didn’t certain members of the Equestrian Commission at that time who were present during subsequent Zoning Board public meetings speak up when their recommendations to the ZBA were not recognized and considered? Some may consider this a rhetorical question, but it nonetheless needs to be answered.
The ePacket agenda for tonight’s commission meeting can be viewed and downloaded here.
ePacket agenda posted for tonight’s Village Board meeting
Posted in Animal Welfare, BH Polo Club, Board of Health, Building Department, Commercial Horse Boarding, Conflict of interest, Cuba Rd Bridge, ePacket Agendas, Equestrian Commission, Ethics, Finance Committee, Financial Reports, FRVPC, Heritage and Environs Committee, Horse Boarding, Land Use, LeCompte/Anderson Commercial Horse boarding amendment, Minutes, OMA, Pension Funding, Plan Commission, Police Reports, Public Safety, Riding Club of Barrington Hills, Road construction, Roads & Bridges Committee, VBHPD, Village Attorney, Village Board, Village Code, Well Water Quality, Zoning Board on August 24, 2015| Leave a Comment »
An ePacket agenda has been posted for the Village Board meeting scheduled for this evening at 6:30 PM. This agenda includes links to most of the documents to be discussed during the meeting, and it can be accessed by clicking here.
Readers will note that a special September 16th Village Board meeting announcement is included in the packet. This meeting will take place at Countryside School at 6:30 PM, and the purpose is to allow residents to publicly provide their opinions regarding what course the Village Board should take regarding pending litigation resulting from the passage of the Commercial Horse Boarding Amendment earlier this year.
A copy of this special meeting announcement, including an agenda for that meeting, can be viewed here.
We’ll be providing further updates on the meeting as the date approaches.
August 24th Village Board meeting agenda posted
Posted in Agendas, Board of Health, Building Department, Commercial Horse Boarding, Cuba Rd Bridge, Finance Committee, Financial Reports, Heritage and Environs Committee, Horse Boarding, Land Use, LeCompte/Anderson Commercial Horse boarding amendment, Minutes, OMA, Pension Funding, Plan Commission, Public Safety, Road construction, Roads & Bridges Committee, VBHPD, Village Attorney, Village Board, Village Code, Well Water Quality, Zoning Board on August 23, 2015| Leave a Comment »
The Village Board meets tomorrow evening at 6:30 PM. A copy of their agenda can be viewed here.
July 23rd Village Board meeting agenda posted
Posted in Agendas, Board of Health, Building Department, Commercial Horse Boarding, ePacket Agendas, Financial Reports, Heritage and Environs Committee, Horse Boarding, Land Use, Minutes, OMA, Pension Funding, Plan Commission, Police Reports, Road construction, Roads and Bridges, Village Board, Village Code on July 23, 2015| Leave a Comment »
July 13 Park District Board meeting agenda released
Posted in Agendas, Barrington Hills Park District, BH Polo Club, FRVPC, OMA, Riding Club of Barrington Hills, Taxes on July 13, 2015| 1 Comment »
The Barrington Hills Park District Board of Commissioners will meet at 7:00 PM this evening at the district Riding Center located at 361 Bateman Rd. A copy of their agenda can be viewed here.
June Flashbacks
Posted in Commercial Horse Boarding, Conflict of interest, County, Deception, Ethics, Horse Boarding, Land Use, Legal Expenses, McHenry, OMA, OP/Ed, Politics, Village Attorney, Village Board, Village Code, Zoning Board on June 30, 2015| 2 Comments »
Following are some of the articles published by The Observer for the month of June in recent years. These articles, gathered from various publications and editorials, are noteworthy for residents in that they remind us of where we’ve been as a community.
Extensive storm damage hits McHenry County – 2011
A signal light outage along a stretch of Algonquin Road through Barrington Hills and parts of Algonquin and South Barrington caused major traffic delays during the morning and evening rush hours Wednesday.
The lights were up and running on before 7 p.m., the Barrington Hills Police Department said. Drivers were advised to avoid Route 62 at the intersections of Brinker Road, Route 59, and Route 59 and Bartlett Road.
Read the Northwest Herald story here.
Barrington Hills residents address horse boarding – 2012
About 200 concerned Barrington Hills residents packed the multipurpose room of Countryside Elementary School Monday night for a hearing on a proposed change to the village code regarding commercial horse boarding.
With only a few exceptions, people who spoke generally looked with disfavor on the amendment that would allow commercial horse boarding as a home occupation business if machinery were operated and nonresidents were on site only between the hours of 6 a.m. and 8 p.m.
Read the Daily Herald account from three years ago here.
After defeat, Barrington Hills changes labor attorney – 2013
Just weeks after suffering an appellate court defeat in its legal fight with the village’s police union, Barrington Hills officials have changed their special counsel in charge of labor relations with officers.
Village President Martin McLaughlin hopes the change of attorney could potentially repair the adversarial relationship the village and police union have known during the past few years. Both sides will have to sit down in a year to negotiate a new contract, he said.
Former Village President Robert Abboud’s arguments that the raises were rescinded as a result of other unexpected costs and financial uncertainties were rejected by both the labor board and appellate court.
Read more from the Daily Herald here.
May 28 Village Board meeting recordings released – 2014
The Village has released edited audio recordings from the May 28 Village Board meeting. To access the menu of the meeting’s topical audio recording segments, click here.
The full public portion of the meeting lasted a somewhat grueling 3 hours and 56 minutes, so we’ll try to cut to the chase of the significant points of the meeting.
Twenty-five residents and non-residents spoke before the board during the public comment session, most voicing concern about the status of all horse boarding in the Village.
Read more from The Observer here.
Attorney General’s office determines April 2013 Village appointments violated OMA – 2014
Nearly a year to the day after a concerned resident filed an Open Meetings Act (OMA) violation complaint against the Village, the Illinois Attorney General’s office recently concurred that appointments made by the outgoing village president during his last official Village Board meeting in 2013 violated the terms of the Act.
Read the full original Observer article here.
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