Zoning requests that prevailed

One topic I haven't addressed much on here thus far (other than in a general overview I wrote last spring) is zoning in Macomb. That's not because I consider it irrelevant -- quite the opposite, actually -- but because there's so much occurring with it, often in apparently contradictory fashion, that keeping pace with the newest chapters of the story isn't easy. I could probably make zoning my sole topic of this site and still not prevent things from slipping through the gaps.

Last week, Macomb governing bodies made two somewhat surprising zoning decisions. I call them surprising because both involved changing (or at least bending) the zoning rules concerning multi-family housing -- and in Macomb, that almost never happens.

The first decision occurred last Monday, October 1, when the Macomb City Council agreed to change the zoning from single to multi-family for a piece of land at the corner of North Randolph Street and Hickory Grove Road. The owner of the land, the Macomb Country Club, requested the change in order to build two duplexes that would sit on the edge of the club's golf course.

The country club's request was granted by city aldermen, passing 8-1. The lone voice of dissent was from Alderman Ken Zahnle, who was quoted in a story by the Macomb Journal: "This is spot zoning, pure and simple."

Even if you disagree with Zahnle, it's easy to to understand his point. As this Macomb zoning map shows, there isn't any multi-family housing anywhere near this land; the closest multi-family units are some duplexes located on the east end of the country club, on Bayberry Lane.

The other zoning decision occurred two days later, when the Macomb Zoning Board of Appeals agreed to allow Scott Wisslead to construct twin duplexes on his property at 533 N. Randolph. From the Journal:

Developer Scott Wisslead sought a front yard setback variance of ten feet. The city code requires a setback of 25 feet, and Wisslead asked to be allowed to set it at 15 feet.

Community Development Coordinator Ed Basch said the fact that 533 is a corner lot gave Wisslead, in effect, two front yards. "For a duplex, this would be essentially an unbuildable lot if you required him to have two front entrances," he told the board.

Neighbor Cheryl Douglas, at 529 North Randolph, objected to the duplex design featuring second floor living quarters and garages on the first level. "It's going to look like a parking garage," she said. "This is a historic neighborhood. Four of these homes are in the David Badger architectural sketchbook."

Board chair Kevin Wiehardt expressed concern about a need for landscaping on the property. Board member A.J. Bourn moved to table any action until more detailed architectural drawings could be provided.

"This motion is indicative of the aesthetic concerns we all share about this design," said board member Sally Egler.

"The ranch home design provides the most useable living space," Wisslead responded.

But City Attorney Liz Wilhelm told the zoning board that action could not be postponed due to aesthetic considerations alone. Bourn then withdrew his motion, and board member Ron Runser moved to approve the variance.

The board cast a unanimous vote of approval. Basch assured board members that his office had successfully worked with Wisslead before on landscaping issues and that should not be of further concern.

(Runser, incidentally, is a new member of the zoning board. As a citizen, he appeared before the board a year or two ago on behalf of his employer, Schuyler State Bank, which requested permission to turn on an electronic sign located in front of the bank's new building on East Jackson Street. That request was granted, but only after a lot of back and forth between the bank and the zoning board.)

The zoning fights aren't over. Coming up soon is a request to build doctors' offices in a corn field along East Grant Street. The homeowners in that neighborhood have already spoken out against the project.

More on the water violation story

Not long after I posted a link to a Macomb Journal story about water-quality violations at a Macomb mobile home park, I spotted a similar write-up in the Peoria Journal Star.

What struck me was the final paragraph in the Journal Star version:

A water line was run from Macomb to Colchester in 2005 and runs right in front of the mobile home park. But city officials said Thursday that Dresler chose not to tap into the line.

Also, the Journal Star version correctly spells the property owner's last name as "Dresler" (one s), rather than "Dressler."

State sues owner of local mobile home park

Earlier this week, the Macomb Journal reported that Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan has filed a lawsuit against Stanley Dressler, owner of a mobile home park located just west of Macomb. The lawsuit alleges that Dressler violated state regulations concerning water provided at his property, Country Aire Estates Mobile Home Park.

From the Journal article:

Water is supplied to Country Aire Estates residents from two drilled rock wells with depths of 320 and 323 feet, supplying an average of 6,580 gallons of water per day to 125 consumers through 51 service connections.

The seven counts detail a laundry list of items the state alleges the park's owner has violated in providing a public water supply: coliform sampling, lead and copper sampling, nitrate sampling, disinfectant sampling, reporting, failure to provide continuous chlorination and equipment installation.

The suit, filed by Madigan's office at the request of the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, seeks correction of the items that allegedly have been violated, as well as maximum fines for each violation, which run up to $50,000 for each violation and up to $10,000 for each day the violation has occurred.

"It's a pretty straight-forward set of violations," Scott Mulford, a spokesman for Madigan's office said Wednesday. "Some people there may not be aware of the problems."

The first count in the suit deals with coliform sampling and indicates the IEPA discovered in 2005 that the park exceeded the maximum contaminant level for coliform bacteria and failed to submit sample results. The IEPA then conducted an engineering inspection on June 27, 2006, and observed that the park's chlorination pump was not operating properly and that records weren't maintained. The suit also indicates the system lacked shutoff valves and adequate flushing hydrants and that the owner failed to routinely collect required samples from the wells, treatment plant and distribution system.

In the lead and copper sampling complaint, the state claims Dressler failed to submit results, which is similar to the complaints about nitrate and disinfectant sampling at the park.

The suit's allegations on reporting claim the state reviewed records on July 22, 2005, and discovered Dressler failed to issue public notices and public notice certification forms for a styrene, ethylbenzene and xylene violation and failed to issue a public notice for a violation for maximum contaminant level of coliform. The suit also alleges Dressler failed to submit monthly operating reports from October 2003 to March 2007, with the exception of August through October 2006.

Dressler, of Hinsdale, said Wednesday that he had not seen the suit.

"I know nothing about that," he said. "I thought I was in compliance with everything."

So far the only online reference I've seen to all this is on the Journal website. No word yet if any other news outlets have picked up on the story.

New source for rental info

As of this week, there's a new source to help in the search for Macomb rentals: rentmacomb.com. The site only launched yesterday but already has quite a few properties posted.

Rentmacomb.com offers a way for visitors to browse available rentals according to price, number of bedrooms, or name of the landlord. Each listing includes a small Google map, showing exactly where the rental property is located in town.

What impresses me about the site (aside from its Google-esque clean and minimalistic interface) is its thoroughness, even this early on in its existence. (Today I counted over 60 properties on the site, easily twice the number you'll find in a local newspaper's classified ads on an average day.) The site's owners, Jacob and Marcia Thurman, invite all Macomb landlords to list their rental properties for free, either by (1) creating a user account and performing the data entry themselves or (2) filling out a form with the necessary information and snail-mailing it back to the Thurmans. Landlords have nothing to lose, so they participate, and that only helps the database grow more complete. (Because even a "free" endeavor like this has to make some revenue, the Thurmans run ads on the right side of each page on the site.)

In a letter to landlords this summer -- asking for their participation in the project -- the Thurmans explained that they were motivated to create rentmacomb.com after spending several months stuck on their own frustrating rental search. "We did eventually find a house that we like," they wrote, "but we also found that despite the very high number of rental properties in Macomb, information about what is available is hard to come by.

"In short, finding a place to rent in Macomb is a lot more difficult than it needs to be."

Earlier this spring, I wrote about the rentals list our RE/MAX office keeps on file -- an informal list of every currently available rental we know about. That list has never been all-inclusive, and I'm always looking for ways to make it better. As soon as I saw rentmacomb.com go live yesterday, I typed it in bold and added it to the top of our list. Maybe our office will have some luck steering landlords and tenants the Thurmans' way.

Movement of Macomb's top homes, part II

Since my last post (nearly three months ago), two of the high-end Macomb homes I described as under contract have since closed. An update:

1915 W. Adams, originally listed for $498,750 and then reduced to $478,000, finally ended up selling for $458,000 on July 6.


The 12.8-acre property had a lot to offer, including

* A separate 2,100-square-foot building with heat and air. Though most people would probably call it a shop, it was really more like a car dealership's showroom floor. (The owner had an impressive collection of vintage vehicles -- including a red convertible that looked like it had been driven straight off the set of Ferris Bueller's Day Off.)

* A real estate tax bill (in 2005) of just $7,410.02. While that figure is high compared to the average house in McDonough County, it's far lower than some other properties that have recently sold for less money. (A house at 1349 Woodland Trail, for example, sold for $360,000 this summer but had a 2005 tax bill of $10,040.60.)

There was another big sale this summer. 1206 Stacy Lane, originally listed for $289,900, closed for $279,900 on June 25.


What will be the next big sale in Macomb for more than $250,000? Maybe it'll simply be decided by whatever house has the lowest tax bill -- even if that figure is north of $6,000 a year.

Movement of Macomb's top homes

A few years ago, I remember reading an article in the Chicago Tribune where Mary Umberger, a business reporter, interviewed a bunch of real estate agents scattered throughout Chicago and its suburbs. Umberger's purpose: Get a pulse on what was happening with real estate in different corners of Chicagoland. The story idea was a good one. And Umberger did an excellent job of finding credible sources in a lot of different communities and writing about them in an intelligent way.

But what I remember about Umberger's findings is how silly they seemed when applied to the Macomb market. One Chicagoland agent had a quote where she lamented that real estate had really slowed down in her neighborhood. Why, just the year before, most houses in this agent's neighborhood had taken two weeks to sell. Now -- sigh -- they took four! (My tears for her formed a dangerous flash flood that swept away from my desk, out into the hallway, and down the stairs to the first floor of our office building, carrying away any victims caught in the path.)

I invite this agent to come to Macomb, where a house typically sits on the market for about six months before selling. And if you're really lucky, you can have a listing last much longer than that. I'm talking years, not weeks or months.

Nowhere is this more evident than with Macomb's top-crust listings -- the sort that are priced over $250,000. Earlier this month, a house at 1349 Woodland Trail sold for $360,000.

The house was originally listed for $429,000, so the buyers got a great deal. But here's the more important info: April 17, 2004. That's the day the house went on the market. Over three years ago.

Other high-end houses are also showing some movement. 1915 W. Adams, listed for $478,000, currently has an accepted offer and is scheduled to close in a few weeks.

In contrast to 1349 Woodland Trail, 1915 W. Adams seems like it's only been on the market for an instant -- even though it was listed over a year ago (April 11, 2006).

1206 Stacey Lane, listed for $289,900, is also under contract and scheduled to close in July. It's been for sale since December 13 of last year.


No takers yet on the most expensive house for sale in Macomb, however -- 14550 N Highway 67 is still on the market, currently at $699,000. It's only been listed since March 1 of this year.

But because it just had a $25,000 price reduction, the place might as well qualify as a genuine fire-sale bargain now.

New grocery store for Macomb?

Ever since Thompson Food Basket at 1600 W. Jackson, Macomb, closed in the late 1990s, this large commercial building has been sitting empty:


Macomb's west-side residents have been without a grocery store ever since. There was always talk that construction of some nearby apartment complexes would prove a tipping point for a grocery store to return to the building, but that never quite happened. Instead, a group called The Crossing bought the property for $755,000 in December 2006 and announced something completely unexpected: They plan to turn the place into a church. The first service is scheduled for later this fall.

Hopes for a grocery store in this part of town haven't died, however. A few weeks ago, this building across the street -- at 1601 W. Jackson -- sold for $565,000:


The seller, Brenner Furniture Company, had been a longtime fixture in Macomb. Now it's out of business. The new owner, S & W Real Estate Management, is currently looking for tenants. Will one of them be a grocery store? We'll probably know later this year.