THE JOURNAL & TOPICS NEWSPAPERS | WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 2006
City Denies Zoning Request
By DWIGHT ESAU
Journal Reporter
For nearly two years now, the City of Park Ridge has struggled with a rewrite of its comprehensive zoning ordinance. A good part of that effort has been to make sure that all possible bases are covered, and all of the possible zoning situations that can come up are covered by part of the new code.
It's a good bet, however, that no amount of research or study could come up with a regulation that would cover all aspects of a strange variance request that came up at the city council meeting on Monday night (Nov. 6).
A request by residents Henry and Valerie Gruss in the 400 block of North Prospect, for a variance to allow them to retain a raised patio and stairs that encroach into a sideyard, was rejected by the city council, even though a majority of the Zoning Board of Appeals members recommended in favor of it.
This case involves a century-old home built by the same stone mason who helped build the Pickwick Theatre, an unusual raised patio, a small side yard, a former 100-year-old maple tree, and a 2006 storm.
And it provides an example of how the city's zoning code can sometimes trump attractive landscaping, appropriate architecture, and the wishes of all of the members of the neighborhood in support of the owner.
Some background:
In 2005, the Grusses completed a library addition to their residence. Next to it were stairs and a unique raised patio (five feet above grade) or terrace. An original design for the stairs to descend sharply from the addition directly to the back yard was considered unworkable and dangerous because of a century-old maple tree that stood in the way, and because the stairs would be architecturally out of scale with the rest of the residence.
An expanded terrace and modified stairs were then constructed around the tree. They extend five feet into the sideyard, violating the zoning code.
Construction and landscaping were completed in September, 2005. City officials told the Journal that proper work permits for the construction of the modified stairs and terrace were not obtained, and the contractor on the job, a landscape architect, reportedly had never worked in Park Ridge before.
In April, 2006, a severe storm struck Park Ridge, and the tree was split in half by lightning. After an arborist declared that the tree could not be saved, it was removed. Additional landscaping was installed to replace it.
The landscaping, terrace and stairs combine to encroach five feet into the required side yard, leaving a setback of two feet instead of the required seven.
To avoid an estimated $25,000 expense in redesigning the terrace, stairs and landscaping, the Grusses asked the city to grant them a variance to allow everything to remain as it is.
After receiving a petition supporting the request from more than a dozen neighbors and hearing no objections to the request at hearings, the zoning board voted 4-3 to recommend granting the request. They specified, however, that the terrace and stairs would have to be removed when the land was sold.
Monday night, after more than an hour of discussion, aldermen voted, by an approximate margin of 9-4, to deny the request, for two reasons:
The hardship claim by the owners is a self-created one, and the owners and contractor failed to secure a proper permit for the modified stairs and terrace in 2005, an action that one aldermen said would have avoided the problem up front.
"Because of the failure to obtain a permit for the modification, and the fact it is a self-created hardship, a majority of us felt we had no choice but to uphold our code," said Ald. Rich DiPietro.
The council vote is reported as approximate because it was taken on a show of hands, and the exact yes-no vote totals are not recorded in such cases.