Story posted Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Trustees Deny Meier's Rezoning
Gus Pappas, owner of Meier's Tavern on Lake Avenue, and his attorney appeared before village trustees at their meeting last week in an effort to have the business rezoned. The request was given a resounding "no" by trustees.
The tavern's attempts to change its zoning designation from R-5 residential to B-2 business date back years. Meier's itself has been a Glenview watering hole since the 1920's before prohibition.
Last August the Glenview Plan Commission rejected Meier's request to change zoning. By law, six months after the rejection the refusal becomes permanent meaning the petitioner could not reapply for two years.
A request for an extension in that six-month rejection clause was on the Thursday, Jan. 7 village board agenda and would have expired days after that meeting. Neighbors opposing the move were at village hall, however, neither tavern owner Pappas nor his attorney were.
Village trustees granted an extension until one day after last week's meeting to allow Pappas to appear before them.
Neighboring residents say Pappas has a poor track record of complying with village regulations and fear for their property values and fear he might sell the property opening it up to any type of business.
Pappas made the case that in 2003 when he was granted a conditional B-2 zoning designation he invested $200,000 into the property and only wants what is coming to him. According to village records, Pappas would have been given B-2 zoning if he would have completed certain required renovations on his property within one year. Pappas admits the renovations were not completed in time but were eventually done. Because the renovations were not complete, Meier's was never granted B-2 zoning.
Neighbors contend that Pappas has broken several agreements with them regarding his property leading to two separate court actions to force Pappas to comply. Neighbors fear Pappas would adversely affect their property vales and could sell the property with no restriction on what might replace it.
Village trustees wanted to know what the compelling rush was to rezone the property. Pappas said he would not be allowed to rebuild if fire were to consume more than 50% of the property.
Trustees said that was not a compelling enough cause to have the property rezoned.
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