Wilmette village trustees who met earlier this month pondered the zoning rights of lakefront homeowners who want to build tall fences on their properties – as well as the propriety of elected officials paying attention to someone’s identity when making those decisions.
Trustees approved the request from the owner of land at 1006 Michigan Ave., allowing for a 6-foot fence to be built around the house rising on that lot.
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Village zoning code restricts fences to 4 feet in height under most circumstances, Community Development Director John Adler said, though there have been exceptions.
Those include the 8-foot fence Wilmette placed around its water plant as a result of a homeland security requirement, one for which the village itself had to seek a variation permit, Village President Bob Bielinski noted.
In addition to approving the zoning, trustees also agreed with Bielinski that the board’s land use committee should consider how to handle fence issues for the 18 or so large residential properties along Wilmette’s lakefront.
Lakefront property owners may all have the same type of issues, including security, that the 1006 Michigan owner has, Bielinski said.
The property owner, who is currently building a house on the lot, needs security, according to Matt Rogers. Rogers, who introduced himself as a zoning consultant for the property owner, called his client “someone of some significance.” The owner’s security consultant actually suggested an 8-foot fence, Rogers said, “but we realize that is far beyond what we should be able to ask for.”
No one was named in the case, which refers to the owner as 1006 Michigan LLC.
Rogers said most of the security issues were what he called “nuisance” problems, such as people cutting through the property to get to the lake, or people wanting to approach the house to talk to residents.
According to Lisa Roberts, Wilmette’s assistant community development director, nothing in Wilmette’s zoning ordinance or village code compels an owner of record to list his or her name for a zoning case.
“It’s not uncommon for builders to form an LLC (limited liability company). If the LLC wasn’t the owner of record, that would be different,” she said Sept. 20. It is also not uncommon for property owners along the lakefront to use an LLC formation in such cases, she said.
During the meeting, Trustee Stephen Leonard said he was uncomfortable focusing on one individual’s needs in making zoning decisions: “I’m struggling a little bit about making land use or permitting decisions based on ownership … I feel like we should be making decisions based on the improvements.”
He later asked whether anyone who was determined enough couldn’t scale a 6-foot fence.
Trustee Dan Sullivan said the issue of security didn’t sway him, but the fact that the fence is set back from the street, and is of an open design, did. Trustee Senta Plunkett also said she did not see what security issues made any Michigan Avenue properties unique.
But Trustee Kathy Dodd said, “I think that in these times, security for these larger properties is an issue,” although she said she didn’t want any Wilmette neighborhood to look like a gated community.
Bielinski, who voted with the rest of the board to approve the zoning request, said he wouldn’t have been comfortable approving the fence had it been right at the property line, or if it had been a less open style, such as a picket fence. But times – and how some members of the public disregard property lines in their rush to the lakefront – have changed, he suggested.
“I think there’s probably been a change over the last 20 to 40 years,” he said, adding that in the past, “nobody would have thought of cutting through property to get to the beach, they just wouldn’t do it.”
Twitter: @pioneer_kathy