Work without permit may mean demolition for building in Palatine couple's yard
While a suburban couple says they needed to start emergency repairs on an 86-year-old former coach home on their property as a request for a permit to fix it was pending and didn't mean to do anything wrong, a local government's denial is expected to force demolition of the structure.
Palatine residents Egle and Robert Vasiliauskiene said they wanted to improve the vacant 900-square-foot building in their backyard because it's an eyesore close to their spacious 4-year-old house on North Clyde Avenue. It would have been used for storage and family hobbies, including music and exercise.
However, the work that was halted by the village in November 2016 will not resume. Palatine officials, responding to a neighbor's complaint about the coach home's roof being removed without zoning approval and a building permit, issued a citation with the stop-work order.
Palatine village council members this week voted 5-0 against a special-use permit to allow an accessory structure for more than storage and a variation for it to exceed a permitted 700-square-foot maximum. The Vasiliauskienes, facing a possible $1,000 fine, reapplied to the village in January in an effort to continue the project.
Councilman Scott Lamerand said the Vasiliauskienes' case differed from instances when residents receive a stop-work order on a building project because they legitimately didn't know about or understand permit requirements. He said the village is willing to find a solution in those cases.
"When the petitioner knows about the situation and knows there's permits required and goes ahead and does the work without that, it really makes it onerous for us to come back and say, 'Wow, we should really approve this and move this forward because, obviously, this petitioner wants to do the right thing,'" Lamerand said.
Egle and Robert Vasiliauskiene said they were surprised by the village council's rejection, in part because in April the advisory zoning board of appeals recommended approval in a 6-1 vote. The council's decision means the coach home built in 1932 is supposed to be torn down due to the unpermitted work, but the Vasiliauskienes plan to explore their options.
Robert Vasiliauskiene said the work started while the permit was pending in 2016 because the roof needed emergency repairs. He estimated it would cost at least $10,000 to get rid of the old coach home, which previously had two bedrooms, a full bathroom and a kitchen.
Egle Vasiliauskiene spoke to the Palatine village council before the rejection. She told the elected officials that she and her husband didn't intend to break local law with the roof work, but wanted to preserve the structure and make it attractive.
"What I felt - and it was just my feeling - when they called me there in front of them, I felt the decision was already made," she said in an interview Thursday. "That whatever I would tell, it was just for the show."
Robert Vasiliauskiene said at least $27,000 would have been spent to fix the old home and contends the idea for using it for hobbies and storage came during a village administrative adjudication proceeding on the matter. He and his wife launched the effort in 2015 by applying for a permit to fix the building and turn it into a gazebo, according to village documents.
Documents show the structure, protected by a tarp after the work halted in 2016, would have had repairs such as electrical fixtures, siding and the roofing for it to be used as a family space.
Attorney Max Berube, who represents the Vasiliauskienes, said the 86-year-old structure has been deteriorating since the work was stopped while the couple was encountering problems getting an appraisal for the structure as part of the permitting process. He said the Vasiliauskienes should have been allowed to protect the house "without punishment."
Councilman Brad Helms said he could not vote to allow the work to resume considering it began without a permit.
"My concern is this also promulgates the, 'Go ahead and do it and ask forgiveness,'" Helms said. "And there's a lot of folks that come before us and they do go through the process. And maybe it's not approved."
Palatine Village Manager Reid Ottesen said a determination of when the structure should be removed will come in the adjudication process.
In March, the Palatine village council declined to allow construction to resume for an out-of-compliance treehouse that began without proper permits on Whippoorwill Lane in the Hunting Ridge subdivision. The denial of a special-use permit and variances for the treehouse to go beyond a height limit meant the structure had to be torn down.