A sailing club whose members said its future hinged on a long-running legal battle may continue storing boats on its property in the Chain o’ Lakes, a judge ruled, despite the village of Johnsburg’s recent efforts to block it.
Members of the 128-year-old Pistakee Yacht Club are allowed to store their boats and trailers during the boating season, and may build boat storage facilities on its backlot, McHenry County Judge Kevin Costello ruled.
The judge denied the village’s request for retroactive fines of up to $500 a day, and the parties must pay their own attorney fees, which cost the club hundreds of thousands of dollars.
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The head of the yacht club, Commodore Mark Hoffman, welcomed the ruling.
“We’re happy with the way it ended up,” he said. “I’m happy it’s over. I really don’t want to continue any more litigation.”
“I definitely think this was overreach, but I really don’t know why,” he said. “Part of the reason we have a club is so people who don’t live on the water have access and a place to put their boats. I hope we can all be friends again and move forward.”
The club had been storing boats on its property for decades. What the judge called “relentless litigation” was triggered after the village sent a letter in September 2023 telling the club that boat storage on the property violated local zoning laws, following an anonymous complaint. After negotiations fell through, the club sued, the village countersued, and both sides filed hundreds of pages of legal briefs before a four-day trial.
The sailing club is one of the oldest in the nation, founded by Chicago businessmen, and its clubhouse is listed on the McHenry County Historical Society registry. Famous boat racer and CNN and TBS founder Ted Turner once served as the guest sailor for its annual Blue Chip Regatta.
The club doesn’t own boats, but its members sail up to 50 or so of their own small and medium-sized boats on Pistakee Lake. The club conducts weekly regattas and is home to Community Sailing School @ Pistakee, which teaches kids, adults and people with disabilities. The not-for-profit club bought its original property on the waterfront in unincorporated McHenry County in 1905, long before the county had zoning laws.
In his ruling Tuesday, the judge made a distinction between the original club property on the waterfront, where the organization built its clubhouse, and its backlot. In 1970, the club bought a grassy backlot across the street from its waterfront property in an area that was zoned residential, and obtained a zoning variance from the county for parking and boat storage facilities there.
The village, originally named Sunnyside, annexed the site, along with 1,600 other properties, in 1991, and generally matched its zoning to the county’s designations, but removed the zoning variance after it became a contentious issue.
The judge rejected each side’s “categorical” positions and created a compromise whereby the club will have to take its boats off the lot in the winter, when they’re not being used, though the club may build storage facilities for small boats. No public commercial storage is allowed.
Yacht club officials said they feared that it would be difficult to attract new members if they weren’t allowed to keep their boats there. They said they got a lot of support from residents, and will be celebrating at their upcoming Oktoberfest and a Bears watch party.
In response to the ruling, Johnsburg Village President Edwin Hettermann wrote the following statement to the Tribune:
“The Village appreciates the court’s decision that agreed with the Village that the property is not an unlimited self-storage facility and that the storage of boats and trailers on the back lot is prohibited during the non-sailing season.
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“It was this change to a self-storage facility that led to the complaints being made to the Village. The Village is also appreciative of the court’s ruling that the property is not to be used for storage of non-boating items which have led to complaints from its neighbors in the past. We are hopeful that the Yacht Club adheres to the court’s ruling in the future and in the spirit of being a good neighbor in the community.”