The Village Board will meet on tonight September 25th at 6:30 PM. The agenda and e-Packet can be found here.
Archive for the ‘Special Use Permits’ Category
Board of Trustees meeting tonight
Posted in 220, Agendas, Board of Education, Board of Health, ePacket Agendas, Equestrian Commission, Finance Committee, Financial Reports, Heritage and Environs Committee, Intergovernmental agreements (IGA), Pension Funding, Plan Commission, Plum Farm development, Police Reports, Public Safety, Public Safety Committee, Roads & Bridges Committee, School Districts, Special Use Permits, Topics Of Interest, Uncategorized, VBHPD, Village Board, Village Code, Village Government on September 25, 2017| Leave a Comment »
May 22nd Zoning Board ePacket Agenda posted
Posted in Agendas, ePacket agendas, Land Use, Special Use Permits, Uncategorized, Village Code, Village Government, Zoning Board on May 20, 2017| Leave a Comment »
The documents to be discussed during Monday evening’s Zoning Board of Appeals meeting have been posted by the Village. A PDF copy can be viewed and downloaded here.
February 21st Zoning Board recordings posted
Posted in Audio Recordings, Fundraisers, Land Use, LeCompte/Anderson Commercial Horse boarding amendment, Public Safety, Special Use Permits, Traffic, Uncategorized, Village Attorney, Village Board, Village Code, Village Government, Zoning Board on March 7, 2017| Leave a Comment »
Audio recordings from the February 21st Meeting of the Zoning Board of Appeals have been posted to the Village website. To access the main menu of recordings edited by agenda topic, click here.
The meeting began with a public hearing for a special use permit for expansion of an existing artificial lake at 153 Algonquin Road. Several neighbors expressed concerns about potential impacts to their properties. The hearing was followed by a unanimous vote to recommend the special use permit to the Board of Trustees. The hearing can be heard here.
The next agenda item had been scheduled to be a vote on the special use permit for a proposed boathouse for a residence on Hawley Lake, which had been the subject of a public hearing in January. Chairman Dan Wolfgram informed the ZBA that the petitioner’s request had been withdrawn.
Discussion then turned to a number of topics that the ZBA had begun to consider at last month’s meeting and had determined merited future deliberation. Village Administrator Bob Kosin began with a description of the process by which a zoning complaint may be registered with the village, and then reviewed the staff procedures to review the complaint and determine if a violation had occurred. True to form, Kosin’s explanation was difficult to follow at times due to his “unique” style. Kosin’s narrative can be heard here.
Next, the board considered the matter of who can submit an application for a text amendment to the village’s zoning code. In recent years, a somewhat vague part of our code has been interpreted to allow any resident potentially affected, directly or indirectly by a zoning matter, to be able to propose a text amendment change. In the case of commercial horse boarding, this lead to numerous dueling proposals which took up an inordinate amount of the ZBA’s time, not to mention taxpayer money. Members seemed to be in agreement that a better process might be for residents first to bring up their suggested amendment changes with either a Board of Trustees member or a ZBA member. The topic was referred to the ZBA’s trustee liaison Colleen Konicek-Hannigan who will present the idea for discussion at an upcoming BOT meeting. That section of the discussion can be heard here.
The ZBA also mulled over the need for either a special use permit or special event permit for residences which play host to numerous and/or large private charitable events. Members felt that charity events are a hallmark of the generosity of the community, and any efforts to create a more formal permitting process should not be done with the idea to curtail or discourage such events. As is the case with many issues debated by the ZBA, a balance between the individual property rights of one resident must be balanced with the neighbors’ rights to peaceful enjoyment of their homes. Members decided that they should begin attempting to draft language for review at a future meeting. That portion of the dialogue can be accessed directly by clicking this link.
Finally, Zoning Board members considered the pros and cons of regulating the length of time that contractors’ advertising signs might be allowed to be displayed at a home, and whether or not there needs to be a limit placed on the height of building structures. Those topics may be found beginning here.
Zoning Board meets February 21st
Posted in Agendas, ePacket Agendas, Special Use Permits, Uncategorized, Zoning Board on February 18, 2017| 1 Comment »
The Zoning Board of Appeals will meet on Tuesday February 21st at 6:30 p.m. Items on the agenda include a public hearing for a special use permit for expansion of a pond at residence at 153 Algonquin Road, and a vote on the special use permit for a boat house at 61 Otis Road. The public hearing on the boat house permit was conducted last month.
To see the full agenda and related packet materials, click here .
January Zoning Board meeting recordings released
Posted in Audio Recordings, Special Use Permits, Uncategorized, Zoning Board on January 28, 2017| 5 Comments »
Audio recordings from the January 17th Zoning Board of Appeals meeting are available for review on the Village website. Board members had two items on their agenda that evening.
The first item on the agenda was a review of possible agenda topics that the ZBA could take up for consideration at future meetings. Board members were in general agreement that they should at least engage in public discussion and review at a later time to determine:
- if special use permits should be required for events being held on private properties, as has been suggested in the past by ZBA member David Stieper.
- if only elected or appointed officials should be allowed to file proposals for zoning text amendments. Currently any village resident can file a text amendment for consideration. Concerns were expressed that continuing with present system could result in excessive expenditure of village resources.
- if regulation of structure heights should be added to the zoning code. Currently there are floor area ratio and setback restrictions, but heights are not addressed.
- if new regulations should determine the status of advertising signs put up by building and or landscape contractors on properties where they are currently performing work. Some of these signs tend to almost be permanent fixtures.
- what are the village’s procedures for follow up of identified zoning violations. Although enforcement is not the role of the ZBA, members expressed a need for clarification of the steps and process by which the Village addresses violations.
The second item on the ZBA agenda was the public hearing for a special use permit for construction of a boathouse for a residence at 61 Otis Road. The construction of the boathouse and pier would project into Hawley Lake, which is privately owned by adjacent homeowners. Testimony was heard from the project’s architect and the applicant homeowner, as well as from neighboring homeowners and the legal representative for three other homeowners who were in opposition to the project.
Concerns were voiced about the blocking of unobstructed lake views, disruption of the neighborhood’s serenity, disruption of the lake’s ecology and and long-maintained natural setting. Neighbors feared that approval of this permit would create a precedent for construction of other boathouses along the lake’s shores, forever changing the character of Hawley Lake.
Although the project seemed, for the most part, to comply technically with the Village’s zoning requirements, members of ZBA expressed concerns about superseding the neighborhood’s homeowner association (HOA) which has a long, albeit informal, tradition of maintaining minimal development and construction around the shared lake.
The ZBA’s attorney, Mary Dickson, advised the ZBA that the HOA can do nothing to prevent this project on their own because the HOA doesn’t have bylaws, hasn’t held an associational meeting, nor is one required. As a result, it is her opinion that it is solely up to the ZBA to determine if this special use is appropriate, and if it should recommend approval to the Board of Trustees.
During deliberations, members of the Zoning Board continued to be troubled about approving the special use permit without having the affirmation of the neighbors, and they expressed a strong desire for the applicants to meet with HOA and neighbors to see if they could work out a new boathouse plan which could satisfy all parties.
The ZBA voted unanimously to continue the consideration of the special use permit until their February 21st meeting.
The standard menu of edited recordings by topic from the meeting is currently not available, but readers may access the recordings at the village’s archiving source by clicking here
2016 Year in Review
Posted in 2017 Elections, Agendas, Barrington Hills Farm, Commercial Horse Boarding, Conflict of interest, Cuba Rd Bridge, ePacket agendas, Horse Boarding, LeCompte/Anderson Commercial Horse boarding amendment, OP/Ed, Special Use Permits, Topics Of Interest, Uncategorized, Village Board, Village Code, Village Government, Zoning Board on January 1, 2017| Leave a Comment »
The Observer takes a look back at another year gone by, as we present the most frequently read news stories and editorials for 2016. Click on any title to read and revisit stories from this past year.
August 30th Zoning Board public hearing recordings published
Our most read and most commented upon story of 2016, this article summarized the August 30th Zoning Board meeting which concluded the public hearings on the latest text amendment proposal for commercial horse boarding codes.
WARNING: Beware of phantom developers!
This story discussed a fear-mongering letter that was mailed to residents throughout the village, containing unsubstantiated claims of Barrington Hills once again being imperiled by greedy developers.
In October, the Observer reviewed the myriad of flaws in the Anderson II commercial boarding ordinance and explained the importance of reinstating boarding under the Home Occupation Ordinance.
Despite the misinformation repeated at many recent meetings, archived Village Board minutes from 1960 show that village leaders then did not approve of commercial equestrian activities on residential properties, having shut down a riding school for being in violation of village code. This feature also drew the second most comments of any story for 2016.
June Village Board Meeting Recordings Released
Our review of the Board of Trustees June meeting covered several topics, but focused primarily on the ongoing delays with the reconstruction of the Cuba Road Bridge (now known as Veteran’s Crossing Bridge). The article highlighted the lack of proper oversight of the project by Gewalt Hamilton, as well as some confusing explanations of the situation by Village Administrator Bob Kosin.
As the Zoning Board of Appeals was about to begin a review of the commercial horse boarding code, the Observer dispelled a long list of oft-repeated fallacies, fictions and lies concerning equestrian activities and horse boarding in this column from July.
Candidates file for April 2017 Village Elections
The title speaks for itself in this most recent top story, highlighting the high level of resident interest in our village government.
Park District to begin charging user fees for Riding Center
The July announcement by the Park District of its intention to set up a fee structure for resident and n0n-resident users of the Riding Center drew a large audience.
Documents added to ZBA horse boarding code hearing package
In the days leading up to the August 30th ZBA meeting, readers were eager to review the 291 pages of documentation that had been submitted to the Zoning Board in the form of court documents, resident and Village official emails, affidavits, Village engineering and Illinois Environmental Protection Agency reports and form letters.
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