You don't need a permit to have a garage sale in Schaumburg now
Schaumburg officials Tuesday formally dropped their requirement that most of the more than 1,100 garage sales in the village each year have permits.
One casualty of the dropped regulation, however, will be the monthly garage sale map the village posted on its website based on the permits issued.
Staff members informed village board members earlier this month about how labor intensive the issuing of permits had become with comparatively little benefit.
Roughly 107 hours of staff time were believed to be occupied by the task from 2013 to 2018, while garage sales have typically generated only about one neighbor complaint per year.
During that time period, the village issued 6,464 garage sale permits. While the majority were applied for online, about 20% required the assistance of staff members.
Among the 42 members of the Northwest Municipal Conference in the region, only 16 have recently required permits for garage sales.
During the past three years, the garage sale map the village has provided online has proved a popular tool, receiving more than 10,000 unique visitors.
But Community Development Director Julie Fitzgerald said there's no way to maintain it without the data from the permits.
Officials are instead recommending apps like VarageSale and Nextdoor to people trying to find or promote garage sales in Schaumburg.
About 100 of the village's garage sales each year have been part of the coordinated sale held for the last five decades in the neighboring Timbercrest and Woods subdivisions on the first weekend in June.
The Timbercrest-Woods sale will still need some village services as a large event spanning two neighborhoods, Fitzgerald said.