Schaumburg nears new limit on garage sizes

Schaumburg has overseen construction of Woodfield, IKEA and a new convention center, but officials are still struggling over just how big backyard garages and storage sheds should be.

A year ago, the village increased the maximum size of a detached garage to 650 square feet -- but then changed its mind as soon as someone built one that big.

Technically, the 650-square-foot maximum is still on the books, but the last few months have seen a constant back-and-forth over what's too big and what's too restrictive.

Village staff Thursday presented a new proposal to the planning, building & development committee, which held off on a formal recommendation due to the absence of one of its members.

The new suggestion is that maximum shed sizes be increased from 150 to 200 square feet, and that detached garages be limited to 25 percent of the backyard.

However, there also would be an upper limit on how big a garage could be under the 25-percent rule -- and it would be different for each of the village's four residential zoning districts.

The new garage that inspired the ongoing debate is exactly 649 square feet, just below the current maximum.

While that garage will remain legal no matter what happens, a new garage built there in the future could be only 450 square feet, under the proposed guidelines. This is because the house has an 1,800-square-foot backyard.

Trustees Jack Sullivan and George Dunham, who serve on the committee, said they were generally pleased by the new proposal but wanted to see more details at their next meeting May 1.

"I'm starting to feel this may not be a one-size-fits-all situation," Sullivan said.

He admitted, though, that he was having difficulty comparing the proposed maximum sizes to the smaller detached garages of his own neighborhood.

Both trustees asked staff to provide photos and diagrams of examples to better illustrate their proposal at the next meeting.