A couple in the midst of a move from Arizona to Chicago can now renovate the historic Sheridan Road house they bought, in order to give themselves an enclosed stairway to their basement, after Wilmette trustees approved their zoning request on Aug. 23.
The approval of setbacks and floor area variation will allow Richard and Taylor Hossfeld to create a one and a half story addition, including stairs to the basement, on the south side of their house at 744 Sheridan Road. According to a report from the village’s zoning board of appeals, which recommended approval of the request, a previous owner’s renovations mean that the only way to get to the basement is to go outside and into the home’s attached garage, where a stairway to the basement now stands.
The garage stairwell allows only one car in what was once a two-car garage, Hossfeld told the board, and putting a stairway back where it had originally been in the kitchen would require tearing up that room, which was one reason he and his wife bought the house.
The application almost got tabled to the board’s Sept. 13 meeting, when Trustee Julie Wolf asked that the case be pulled from the consent agenda. Wolf said some property neighbors had concerns about the request but couldn’t be at the meeting.
Richard Hossfeld told the board that the move to table caught him “off guard.” He told Village President Bob Bielinski that he has had significant conversations with the neighbors over the past four to five months addressing their issues, including the belief of some neighbors that the addition would loom over adjacent homes.
Hossfeld worried about the timing of the postponement. His wife is pregnant, he said, and due in November, so they are hoping to have the addition completed in October: “We’ve been trying to start construction because we don’t want to be bringing our baby home to a construction zone.”
Trustee Daniel Sullivan, a former zoning board of appeals member, opposed Wolf’s motion, saying, “I feel this is a disappointing course that we’re taking.”
Sullivan pointed out that residents who had concerns about the project had attended the zoning board of appeals hearings at which it had been reviewed, first in April – when the zoning board rejected the Hossfeld’s first two-story addition proposal – and then in August, when the ZBA approved the couple’s revised, smaller addition proposal.
Sullivan said the Hossfelds took the time to learn village procedures after their first zoning board hearing, and spent time speaking with the village and the neighbors, who, he said, had been very vocal at both hearings, but had failed to send any correspondence thereafter to anyone but Wolf.
Trustee Ted McKenna told Bielinski that he was also sympathetic to the Hossfelds’ plight.
After hearing Hossfeld’s comments and after Bielinski said the board could still talk about the case before voting on it, Wolf withdrew the motion to table, saying, “My main purpose in taking it off consent was just to discuss it.”
All five board members at the meeting voted to approve the request. Trustees Cameron Krueger and Senta Plunkett were absent.
Twitter: @pioneer_kathy
More Top Picks Best Instrument Microphones