Carpentersville making it easier for east side home improvement projects

By Erin Sauder For Sun-Times Media

Homes in the Lincolnwood Manor subdivision on Carpentersville's east side. | Erin Sauder for Sun-Times Media

CARPENTERSVILLE - Making home improvements has just gotten a little easier for thousands of east side residents due to a change in the village's zoning ordinance.

For decades, the majority of the homes located in the Meadowdale and Lincolnwood Manor neighborhoods have not complied with current residential zoning, making for a lengthy variance process and associated fees - and sometimes hard-to-come-by building permits - when people wanted to make home improvements.

But the village board recently approved rezoning those properties to bring them into compliance with the code.

Village officials said the zoning code has changed dramatically since the single-family homes in that area were developed in the 1950s and 1960s. The houses have a different development pattern than the newer suburban style of the homes on the village's west side near Randall Road. On the east side, officials said, houses typically were constructed on smaller lots, while the current residential zoning districts are based on the suburban style of large setbacks and lots.

'Previously, if someone wanted to do a home improvement project - for example, finish the basement or add another room - they would have to get a variance because the house didn't meet the zoning regulations,' said Community Development Director Marc Huber.

Over the years, the village's Planning and Zoning Commission has received numerous building permit requests from property owners on the east side for home improvements such as building a front porch or an attached garage on the side of their house. And in many cases, the village had to deny those permits because the house did not meet the front yard setback.

'We're trying to make it easier and more convenient for residents to make improvements on their properties,' Huber said. 'And now, because they're conforming, it will be much easier for them.'

Trustee Kevin Rehberg calls the zoning ordinance change 'a great example of our village staff listening to what the residents want and then doing something proactive about it.'

'With every piece of red tape village staff removes from our zoning ordinances, it becomes that much easier for stakeholders in the community to improve the village organically,' he said.

Rehberg said feedback from residents impacted by the change has been overwhelmingly supportive of the measure.

'Which to me is the best indicator that this is a big step in the right direction,' he said. 'Village staff worked hard on this to get it right, and it looks like that is exactly what they did.'