Schaumburg hopes to help apartment dwellers who can't get air conditioning until June

Schaumburg officials are exploring ways to help apartment landlords provide air conditioning on hot pre-summer days when they're still required by the village to provide heat.

Village officials say the issue occurs in buildings capable of making the transition from heating to air conditioning only twice a year.

Resident Afreen Rana told village board members this week that hot days before the required June 1 changeover have seemed to occur more often over the six years she's lived at the Legend Park Apartments at the intersection of Cambia Drive and Crabtree Lane.

The recent string of days that reached the upper 80s outside felt even hotter indoors, she said.

"Inside a large apartment building that I reside in currently, the temperature easily gets up to 90 degrees," Rana said. "And if we try to cook or do any sort of physical activity, it'll get up to 90-plus. So I would like to know what can we do to get this rule changed so that we can move up the date or make it on a temperature base?"

Schaumburg Community Development Director Julie Fitzgerald said the village has adopted the International Property Maintenance Code. The regulations don't require air-conditioning but do mandate heat be made available from Sept. 15 to June 1 for residents without individual control over their apartment temperature.

However, a local amendment to the code is possible if deemed appropriate, she added.

"This comes up on a certain number of properties each year, sort of weather-dependent," Fitzgerald said. "We had an awfully hot weekend. I'm sure it was miserable without air conditioning last week."

Legend Apartments is among some large apartment complexes in Schaumburg that are able to offer only heating or only air conditioning at any given time, she said. And Friday is expected to be unseasonably cool.

"They can't turn on the air until they abandon properly for the year the heat and turn the boilers off," Fitzgerald said.

She suggested that surrounding communities could be surveyed on how they handle the same dilemma.

Mayor Tom Dailly asked that updates and further direction on the issue be addressed by the board's planning, building and development committee beginning at its next meeting, set for 7 p.m. Thursday, June 3.

"You brought up a good point that needs further discussion and time than we have here at a board meeting," Dailly told Rana. "Unfortunately, we won't be able to help you out right today, but we will at least be able to take a look at this and determine maybe it requires a date change or requires something else."

Bryan Ackerlund, director of building & code enforcement in neighboring Hoffman Estates, said his village has eliminated defined dates of when heat is mandatory, instead requiring that it be available to maintain a minimum temperature of 68 degrees.

Schaumburg Trustee Jack Sullivan, who chairs the planning, building and development committee, asked that it be informed of how many apartment complexes there are in the village in which residents don't personally control the transition between heating and air conditioning in their units.

The committee's June 3 meeting at village hall, 101 Schaumburg Court, will be accessible to the public in person and via Zoom.