Mosque vote will test attendance for Kane County officials
A rare, formal legal protest of a proposed mosque just west of Carpentersville will trigger an attendance test for Kane County Board members.
An attorney for the owners of L&H Farm filed a formal protest about the pending conversion of a residential home near Huntley and Boyer roads into a mosque. The American Muslim Community Organization plans to build a 750-foot addition to accommodate up to 80 people for worship gatherings.
The plan already cleared Kane County’s Zoning Board and the county board’s Development Committee. The original L&H Farm objection cited concerns with increased traffic and the possibility of overwhelming the septic system on the property. Officials from the Kane County Public Health Department recently cleared the septic system on the property as suitable for the proposed use.
The argument about safety concerns over traffic entering and leaving the site has not held much sway with county officials to date. But the formal legal protest will require 20 of the county board’s 26 members to vote in favor of the project to gain legal approval. The Kane County Board has had problems at times mustering enough board members for a voting quorum. It became enough of a problem that County Board Chairman Karen McConnaughay began tracking board members’ attendance and publishing it on the county’s website.
McConnaughay encouraged members of the county board’s Executive Committee on Wednesday to read up on the issue and come prepared to vote.
“Anytime something triggers that three-quarters requirement, everyone wants to make sure you know exactly what you’re voting on,” McConnaughay said.
Formal protests are uncommon on zoning issues because they require one of multiple neighbors to own more than 20 percent of the real estate touching the land seeking a rezoning to agree to the protest. In this case, L&H Farm owns land to the south, east and a north of the proposed mosque.
Tim Harbaugh, the county’s executive director of facilities, development and environmental resources, said the three-quarters vote is a part of the county code designed as a check against county officials voting against the wishes of neighboring property owners without a good reason.
“If you think about it, it does make sense,” Harbaugh said. “If the neighbors don’t like it, it should require more than a simple majority. That’s what the county board decided a long, long time ago.”