Buffalo Grove homeowners fight plan for plastic fence

Homeowners living near the Cambridge on the Lake complex in Buffalo Grove are hoping village board members won't be sitting on the fence at the next meeting.

They are appealing a Zoning Board of Appeals recommendation to allow Cambridge on the Lake, located just west of Buffalo Grove Road on Dundee Road, to put up a white PVC perimeter fence.

Buffalo Grove trustees are expected to hear the appeal on Aug. 9.

The ZBA, by a 4-2 vote, favored granting a variance to put up a six-foot-high fence, replacing a six-foot one.

Neighbors, however, are not thrilled with a white plastic fence replacing a brown wooden fence, because they feel the white color will clash with their own brown fences.

A resident of the Cambridge neighborhood said he and others are petitioning the village to overturn a recommendation of the Zoning Board of Appeals.

"This wooden brown fence has been up for about 30 years," said Michael Ehas, who lives in the 200 block of Anthony Court on the southwest corner of the Cambridge on the Lake.

"All of our neighbors have landscaped our yards to fit into this brown wooden fence that now exists," he said. "We have laid in brick and mulch to blend in with this brown wooden fencing. And now we have learned that it's going to be this white plastic fence that they're installing. "

Ehas said the neighbors are upset that they weren't consulted.

"It's going to be a very large eyesore," Ehas said. "It's within 30 feet of my living room window. So it's something that's going to be blaring out at me every day that I look at it."

Buffalo Grove Deputy Building Commissioner Brian Sheehan said a clerical error incorrectly informed surrounding homeowners that the existing wooden fence would be replaced by another wooden fence. The error appeared on the agenda for the ZBA's July 20 meeting.

Sheehan said he has sent out a letter with the correction to the surrounding property owners who received the original notice.

Dan Wolf, attorney for the Cambridge on the Lake homeowners, said several of the neighbors appeared at the ZBA meeting to voice objections. Still, the ZBA recommended the variation, he said.

"I have not heard directly from any of the neighbors," Wolf said.

The variation was for the height, not the color, although Wolf said the ZBA could have attached conditions to its approval but didn't. He said the Cambridge of the Lake board of directors, which represents approximately 550 residents, determined that "this color was most desirable for the development."

He added, "The association has no requirement of having a fence at all. The neighbors are benefiting by having the fence. We can't possibly appease everybody."

Cambridge on the Lake is sensitive that neighbors are going to be affected, Wolf said, and made it clear to the ZBA it was going to get the project completed as quickly and with as little debris or noise impact as possible.

Sheehan said he has spoken to several neighbors. "Even if they wanted to put up their own fence to mask it, by right they can only put up a five-foot fence, so each one of them would have to go for a variation to put a six-foot wood fence to block the view of this white wall that they don't want to really look at."