Winfield trailer law meets resistance from residents

Lee Buchholtz is no stranger to storing his boats or water skis on his driveway.

The Winfield man moved into the village two decades ago partly because his home offered him the space to store his outdoor leisure pursuits.

Despite a longstanding local law prohibiting such outdoor storage for prolonged periods of time, Buchholtz said he wasn't informed by village officials until this past spring about the ordinance.

Now he's hoping to rally his neighbors to persuade village leaders to loosen regulations on what they can store on driveways.

"Some of our neighbors made the decision to buy their homes based on whether they can store their camper on their lot," Buchholtz said. "We've been doing this for years and should be left alone."

Village officials sent letters to Buchholtz and about two dozen scofflaws in April about the largely ignored regulations, which prohibit parking recreational vehicles for prolonged periods of time in front of residential homes.

Nobody has been ticketed for the parking violations, Village Manager William Barlow said.

"We wanted to make sure we first educated the people about what the laws were," Barlow said. "There's a moratorium on the ordinance until the village board decides whether it wants to take up the matter."

The letters, however, stirred sentiments on both side of the issue.

Several residents have been distributing fliers in the village urging homeowners to request the laws not be changed.

"What is the village going to do if a person decides to park a bunch of vehicles on his yard," said Heidi Vollmuth, who has urged the village board to preserve the parking ordinance. "The village won't have any authority to regulate that."