Naperville chamber balks at changes to landscaping laws
Naperville officials say they are getting closer to nailing down some changes to its local landscaping laws but the local chamber of commerce has some reservations.
The city is working on an ordinance that would that ensure absentee and bankowned homes are landscaped to city code while also limiting the time and days landscapers can do the work.
City officials say they are trying to maintain neighborhoods’ quality of life, but some members of the Naperville Area Chamber of Commerce say the proposed laws may “go too far” and not be “business friendly.”
Transportation, Engineering and Development (TED) Business Group Leader Marcie Schatz delivered the proposal to chamber members during Monday’s meeting of the chamber’s legislative committee.
The ordinance would make it mandatory for absentee landlords and the 250 bank-owned properties in the city to be maintained by a professional landscape company. Schatz said the city may increase the amount of the fines, now at $135.
While calling for landscapers to maintain the yards of blighted, foreclosed property, the city also plan to impose the same hours building contractors must abide by on weekends: Interior and exterior construction must be done between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. weekdays and 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturdays. It prohibits such work on Sundays.
“Most people don’t want their landscaping done on Saturday or Sunday but banks and landlords don’t care, so the landscapers come into these neighborhoods on Saturdays and Sundays,” Councilman Steve Chirico said. “That’s very disruptive to the neighborhoods.”
Some chamber officials disagree, and said they are likely to be in attendance on July 18 when the city’s plan commission takes up the issue.
“To say a commercial lawn service can’t mow on a Sunday seems to go a little too far. Saying they can’t mow at 8 p.m. or 6 a.m. seems a little more understandable and brings it into the confines that homeowners are likely more accustomed to,” said chamber board member Russ Whittaker. “An outright restriction on mowing may go too far. I agree that pounding a hammer and saws and stuff on a Sunday is a little different from mowing the lawn.”
Tami Andrew, interim president and CEO of the Naperville chamber, said the organization hasn’t taken a stand on the issue but she believes “more research needs to be done” by the city.
“I really thinks this goes too deep,” she said after the meeting. “There’s got to be something that can be done that is a little more of a compromise.”
Some Naperville landscapers, however, say they don’t think the proposed changes will make much of a difference.
Jeff Sebert, owner of Great Impressions Landscape, said he is mostly finished with residential neighborhoods by the weekend.
“People want their lawns mowed so they can enjoy them for the weekend. That’s one of the main conveniences we supply,” he said. “So if we’re doing a neighborhood we’re not going to differentiate who owns it, we’re just going to do it while we’re there. So I don’t see an issue.”
Mike Nutt, owner of Mike’s Lawn Service agreed. During a season, he could have as many as 36 clients and he wants to get them all done during the week.
“I think I can speak for all of the mowing services around when I say we want to be done mowing by Friday afternoon,” Nutt said. “And even fewer of us will work on a Sunday, anyway.”
The planning and zoning commission meets at 7 p.m. on July 18 at the municipal center, 400 S. Eagle St.