A Chilton Lane couple will have to get rid of a 6-foot-high solid fence around their west Wilmette side-yard, despite having the written support of most of their neighbors, after Wilmette village trustees decided Sept. 9 that it didn’t meet village zoning regulations.
Carla and Scott Lawson, of the 700 block of Chilton, wanted to keep the 90-foot-long fence around their back yard. They told trustees the fence replaced one that previous owners of the corner lot once had but which was taken down several years ago after a downed tree crushed it.
Village trustees, however, decided almost unanimously to stick with zoning rules that restrict fences to 4 feet in height around side yards – which the Lawson’s back yard technically is, thanks to their property’s corner lot placement.
Only Trustee Senta Plunkett voted to overturn a July Zoning Board of Appeals ruling against the Lawson’s request. Six other trustees, including Trustee Daniel Sullivan, backed the decision.
Sullivan, who formerly served as the zoning board’s chair, said the fence was “nicely done,” and that he appreciated the Dawson’s arguments, that the fence provided security and privacy for the family.
Sullivan also sympathized with the circumstances involved in the fence’s construction. An over-eager contractor built it in May of this year without actually being awarded the job, Scott Lawson explained to the board.
“I somewhat lost my mind with these guys,” he told trustees, adding, “The guy is working with me because he knows he was in the wrong.”
Nonetheless, Sullivan said, he couldn’t support allowing them to keep the fence up when a four-foot-tall fence backed with screening plants would meet both zoning regulations and privacy concerns.
He also dismissed Carla Lawson’s argument that her family needed the taller fence at least in part to provide greater security on the property.
“I hate to say it, but if someone wants to get into your house, they will do it despite a 6-foot fence,” Sullivan said.
Village Board President Bob Bielinski agreed with Sullivan and said other residents who won the right to build side yard fences taller than 4 feet in height tended to be located on busy thoroughfares like Lake Avenue. The Lawson property sits in a quiet cul-de-sac neighborhood, he said.
Bielinski also said he did not think the fence could be considered a replacement for the fence that the property’s previous owners had put up. The fence crushed by the tree appeared to have been absent for several years before the Lawsons erected the new one, he said.
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Before the vote, Trustee Julie Wolf quipped that she was “on the fence” about whether to vote for or against the Lawsons’ request, prompting Bielinski to respond, “Somebody was going to say it.” Despite the momentary levity, Wolf joined Bielinski and Sullivan, as well as trustees Carol Ducommun, Cameron Krueger and Ted McKenna in upholding the zoning board’s decision.
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