8 months after neighbors' dispute over trailer, Schaumburg closer to new rules
Schaumburg trustees Tuesday took a major step in their now eight-month journey to adopt new regulations for the parking of hauling trailers in residential driveways, sparked by a neighbor dispute that began last summer.
The proposed regulations largely confine themselves to the allowable size of hauling trailers, and leave recreational vehicles and campers as unregulated as they've been.
Trustees voted to send the potential rules to the zoning board of appeals for a public hearing and further review on an as-yet-unscheduled date.
Once the zoning board makes a recommendation — probably in May — the regulations will come back to the village board for final approval.
The current draft suggests that as of Sept. 1, hauling trailers taller than 9 feet or longer than 25 feet without the hitch cannot be parked in a residential driveway for more than 48 hours at a time, and no more than four times a month.
The hauling trailer that inspired the new regulations is approximately 13 feet tall and 28 feet long, and has been permanently parked in the driveway of a cul-de-sac on the west side of the village since last summer.
Trustee Jack Sullivan, who chairs the planning, building and development committee, said one of his goals in trying to legislate a solution to an apparently unresolvable neighbor dispute was to avoid creating regulations with an unnecessarily broad impact.
His committee has discussed the matter and the evolving legislation at five meetings since early August.
During that time, the audience gradually dwindled from more than 50 people to only about four last week as most residents came to understand that no RVs and only hauling trailers of the most extraordinary size would be affected by the proposed regulations, Sullivan said.