Will the third time be a charm?
Residents of the McCord Place 38 McCord Trace property in Palos Park are asking the village to allow for a six-foot fence to block the LaGrange Road traffic noise.
It’s the second time the village council discussed it and a third time is coming.
The Village Zoning Board of Appeals denied the request in November and in mid-January. However, according to village records, the staff recommended approval of the requested variance to the board in January.
At the Jan. 26 village council meeting, Commissioner Michael Wade recommended that more information must be provided by the applicant before the board makes its vote.
“The request is for purposes of mitigating undesirable noise and visual impact from LaGrange Road,” Wade said. “This was seen twice by the Zoning Board of Appeals and was denied twice but I want the subject to go into a little bit more detail and give them more of a chance to appeal.”
The council voted 4-0 – with Commissioner Rebecca Pitan absent – to continue this issue to the Feb. 23 meeting.
On Dec. 8, Roger Jensen representing McCord Place residents, asked the village council to allow building a six-foot fence to block the LaGrange Road noise. The current code is a max of 4 ½ feet.
“We are really suffering there,” Jensen said in December. “We are very close. If you take the traffic level of LaGrange Road and you take that and compare that to the total traffic on a daily basis for Route 7, for Route 83 and 123rd Street, they are about equal.
“There are 31,000-to-33,000 cars per day going on LaGrange Road. Why do we have to suffer when there has been some relief given on Southwest Highway, on Route 83 and other places on LaGrange Road? Why are we being denied?”
He told the board that those residents who live as close to 75 feet from LaGrange Road endure 60-70 decibels of noise and that 80 is considered loud enough to cause health problems.
Herman leaving
Palos Park Community Development Director Mark Herman is leaving to take a similar post in Tinley Park.
Herman has been with Palos Park since July 2021. Before that, he had community jobs in Lemont, Lisle and Glendale Heights.