Kane County orders Elburn family to remove animals to end neighborhood feud

With property holding everything from goats and pigs to geese and ducks, Michael and Stacey Kowalczyk are an extreme example of the sustainable living movement that's placed chicken coops and beehives in backyards throughout the suburbs.

But Kane County leaders decided Tuesday that type of life, at least at that level, just doesn't belong in the neighborhood near Elburn that's been embroiled in a four-year feud over the Kowalczyks' lifestyle.

County board members voted 19-4 to force the family to remove the remaining animals on their property. The couple live in a planned unit development on Willow Creek Drive. County laws prohibit agricultural uses within such developments unless those functions are included in the original plan for the development. The Willow Creek community did not include the keeping of livestock and fowl as a permitted use in the original zoning of the neighborhood. The Kowalczyks sought a rezoning to allow them to keep at least their chickens, geese and ducks. The zoning change would have impacted only their property.

Making an exception for the Kowalczyks was a precedent the county board didn't want to set Tuesday. A four-year history of zoning, nuisance and police complaints between the Kowalczyks and their nearest neighbor seemed to fuel the board's final decision.

"There is no point in continuing a contentious situation," said board member Drew Frasz. "They are trying to operate a farm hub in a residential neighborhood. They can solve all their problems by moving to a farm."

The Kowalczyks attempted to sway the board with some character references and a history of the farming nature of the property. They also disputed a report by neighbors that they burned goat carcasses for several days after killing, skinning and eating them in the backyard when the goats became a central focus of odor complaints.

"Everything that was filed, all the complaints, were all filed by one family," Stacey Kowalczyk said. "There's no proof of nothing."

But the majority of the board did not believe the Kowalczyks proved their case for keeping the animals. The predictability of the neighborhood's rules are important for current and future neighbors, board members said. And rules are rules for a reason.

"They knew what they were getting into when they moved into the subdivision," said board member Kurt Kojzarek. "They are part of that (development). To ask us for forgiveness now to allow them to do farming sets a bad precedent. When that farmhouse was moved into a residential community, it takes on the rules of that residential community. It is not the other way around."

The Kowalczyks plan to sell their house and move.