Lighting issue drives crowded Barrington Hills board field

Though candidates still have five days to file, the sleepy community of Barrington Hills already is emerging as home to one of the area's more hotly contested races.

Largely driving the escalated political interest at least seven residents are expected to run for four trustee positions is the controversial ordinance proposing to limit outdoor lighting.

Village President Robert Abboud, who is not up for re-election on the April ballot, said he's putting his full support behind Karen Selman, Dawn Davis and Patti Meroni, the three village trustee candidates who filed Monday.

They'll face a challenge from members of the Common Sense Party, which evolved from the anti-lighting ordinance group Homeowners Against Lighting Ordinances, or HALO. Current Trustee Beth Mallen, Stephen D'Amore, Skip Gianopulos and Dede Wamberg make up the upstart slate.

Both groups say that while the spotlight is on the ordinance, their philosophical differences go far deeper.

Abboud said the Common Sense Party's opposition to the lighting ordinance is really about the protection it would give to the village's comprehensive plan, and more specifically its long-standing five-acre zoning minimum. He's seen campaign mailers indicating that the party favors “feathering,” or making exceptions on the perimeter of the village.

“My position has been that while the village looks carefully at growth and change, we do not compromise our future,” Abboud said. “This (the minimum size of lots) protects our property values, our uniqueness and our environment.”

But Gianopulos, a financier, said his party simply wants to take a different tactic by working with developers. He said Barrington Hills spent millions of dollars, only to lose 600 acres to unincorporated McHenry County and Hoffman Estates.

“We fight for every inch but have given up nearly a square mile,” Gianopulos said. “This is a way to lock in our borders.”

Three four-year term trustee positions and one two-year term position are available in the April 5 election.