Barrington Hills passes new rules on horse boarding
The Barrington Hills village board passed new rules this week on the number of horses allowed at commercial boarding operations, possibly ending a long-standing controversy in a town that proudly proclaims its equestrian-friendly atmosphere.
The measure, passed during a special meeting Monday before a large crowd at Countryside Elementary School, allows landowners to keep up to one boarded horse per acre on lots smaller than 10 acres, and up to two per acre on larger lots. There will be no limit on landowners' personal horses.
Barrington Hills' regulations for commercial horse boarding have been the subject of several legal challenges in recent years, some taking aim at Oakwood Farms, a 127-acre equestrian estate that neighbors claim has overstepped the village's rules. Under the new rules, Oakwood Farms could commercially board 254 horses.
The trustees approved the new rules by a vote of 4-1. The lone dissenter was Trustee Colleen Konicek Hannigan.
In a letter entered into the public record before Monday's meeting, Hannigan wrote that she believes village officials who were in favor of the new rules were rushing the vote as a favor for a single landowner.
"There are no properties other than the one that is the subject of current long-standing litigation that are in any manner jeopardized by the village's ordinances as they currently exist," Hannigan wrote. "We will assuredly end up in more than one costly lawsuit as a result of these tactics.
"The biggest threat, however, is not to our village coffers, but to the peaceful and friendly relationships that used to exist within the confines of our village boundaries."
The vote comes nearly three months after some members of the board, including Village President Martin McLaughlin, said they would try to get a long-term solution to the horse boarding issue.
"The last thing this issue needs to be is a political ping-pong ball," McLaughlin said on Sept. 22. "If we do it the right way, it will stay on the books for 50 years."
McLaughlin did not attend Monday night's meeting but wrote a letter expressing his disapproval of the new rules.