Village law wasn't just response to dispute
Elk Grove Village desires to clear-up several items of information published in your Oct. 1 editorial, "Must every dispute require a law?"
We agree that small-time disagreements should not result in communitywide legislation. However, we believe that the Elk Grove case was not a knee-jerk reaction to a neighbor complaint, but a necessary minor revising to our existing policies for clarity purposes.
As a matter of public policy, the elected officials of Elk Grove strive to avoid creating "one size fits all" laws whenever possible. We are always careful and thoughtful to consider the impacts of any proposed legislation on the entire 35,000 residents of our community. Like you, we much prefer that neighbors work collaboratively to solve individual issues rather than having the Village Board ban or prohibit certain activity. In this light, the adoption of laws in Elk Grove is generally reserved for addressing communitywide concerns just as the editorial suggested.
Beaverton, Oregon, was cited as an example of a community that offers a dispute resolution mediation program. However, our own Northwest Municipal Conference has been offering mediation services to all of its members, including Elk Grove, for the past two decades. Mediation is available at no additional cost to members of the community. The one caveat is that this mediation program is voluntary and requires the cooperation of both neighbors.
With regard to the issue in Elk Grove, the neighbors were both offered the mediation program and it was declined. Mediation was not an available solution in this instance.
Finally, with regard to the ground feeding of wild animals, Elk Grove has banned this activity for over four decades. However, we acted to tweak our existing ordinance by removing one word. We did not act as a result of the neighbor dispute. We acted to provide clarity to the community as to what is or is not an acceptable feeding practice.
Feeding wild birds via a bird feeder remains allowable in Elk Grove. Feeding other feral animals remains prohibited as it has for the last 40 years.
Craig B. Johnson, Mayor
Elk Grove Village