DEKALB COUNTY
ZONING ORDINANCE CHANGES
Should zoning laws be determined by
administrative staff or elected leaders?
On December 16, 2004, an open hearing on proposed changes to the
DeKalb County zoning ordinance was held at the Gatheratorium in
Sycamore. Local attorney Ron Klein served as Hearing Officer and
moderated an almost four hour meeting that included 17 speakers
from an audience of about 80 citizens.
Two of those
speakers; Peter Barick (Sycamore) and Jack Bennet (DeKalb) spoke
in full support of the proposed changes that include rezoning
all land in unincorporated DeKalb County to A-1 Agriculture
while "grandfathering" existing property currently zoned
Residential and Commercial by deeming such property "legal non-comforming."
Mr. Barick is a founding member of the Sycamore slow-growth
advocacy group CARE. Mr. Bennet is the director of the DeKalb
County Farmland Preservation Association (DCFPA). The proposed
changes also received written support from the DCFPA, the DeKalb
County Farm Bureau, and from the Professional Planners from the
City of DeKalb.
Fifteen speakers,
including farmers, rural residents, rural business operators,
developers, lawyers, realtors, mortgage lenders and a title
company president expressed concerns and opposition to the
rendering of existing property to legal non-conforming. The
hearing officer also received eight letters from local residents
and organizations to all or part of the proposed zoning changes.
Individual county board members have also received email
correspondence regarding concerns with the changes.
On December 24,
2004, Klein submitted his written recommendation on the matter
to the DeKalb County Board. The nine page document has yet to be
posted on the DeKalb County Government website for public
review.
The Hearing Officer
recommended that the County Board approve the changes to the
zoning ordinance subject to reservations expressed in his
report. Klein believes, based on his experience, that zoning
existing parcels to "legal non-conforming" is a substantial
problem that could adversely affect the property rights of
existing land owners. He recommends that "some identifying label
or designation other than merely 'legal non-conforming' be given
to properties to help alleviate the potential problems mentioned
above."
Klein also believes
the public has had ample time to have had the proposed changes
fully and fairly explained to them and that the public has had
adequate opportunity for input. Again Klein's recommendation has
yet to be posted on the county's website, nor has zoning
director Paul Miller's memorandum dated December 3, 2004 which,
according to Klein, are responses to questions raised by the
public at the three open houses.
Mr. Miller dismisses
concerns expressed by professionals in the legal, real estate,
mortgage lending and title insurance industry based on his
conversations with experts, he does not feel comfortable naming,
who have told him that legal non-conforming status will have no
implications on a borrower's need for financing. He stated that
a problem might occur in one of a hundred cases. It would be of
service to name those bank presidents and experts who made such
statements. If an affected legal non-conforming landowner ran
into difficulty there would be a known source for funding.
A huge policy
question was raised at the public hearing. In response to a
request that the proposed changes be put before the public in
the form of a referendum, Miller stated that zoning was a
function of paid administrative staff and not legislative.
Several were not comfortable upon learning that the rights of
property owners were at the mercy of paid administrators not
subject to the will of voters.
Local attorney,
Jordan Gallagher (Sycamore) stated that he strongly believed
that zoning is a legislative function, not an administrative
function. Former county board member Joe Weigand (Fairdale) also
took exception noting that the proposed changes appeared to be
staff-driven and not policy set forth by elected officials.
Wiegand also recited a case in another state where a 40-year
business, similarly "grandfathered" as legal non-conforming, was
forced by its city government to remove the business after two
years. The case was appealed and the courts ruled in favor of
the city.
The next step in
this process is a public meeting of the DeKalb County Planning
and Zoning Committee held at the Legislative Center at 7PM on
Wednesday, January 26, 2005. Citizens are allowed to address the
committee at this meeting. The citizens have a right to know
whether staff recommendations hold a higher priority with
elected officials than the needs of the voters and property
owners.
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Addendums: 2
Paul Miller's 01/11/05 Memorandum to
Zoning Committee
Ron Klein's (Hearing
Officer) Report from Public Hearing
