The wait continues.
Residents of the McCord Place 38 McCord Trace property in Palos Park still do not have an answer if they can build a six-foot fence to block noise caused by LaGrange Road traffic.
For the second straight meeting that this issue was on the agenda, the Palos Park Village Council did not vote on it. Like with the Jan. 26 meeting, the Feb. 23 meeting yielded no results.
“We’re going to give these people a little bit more time to gather a few more facts,” Commissioner Mike Wade said. “I want to continue until the March 23rd meeting.”
In December, Roger Jensen represented the McCord residents and spoke to the board about allowing the fence to be six feet instead of the customary 4 ½ feet allowed by the village.
This request was denied twice by the village’s Zoning Board of Appeals but the village council said it wanted more information before deciding whether to overturn the ZBA’s recommendation or not.
“We are really suffering there,” Jensen said at the December meeting. “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 relief given on Southwest Highway, on Route 83 and other places on LaGrange Road. Why are we being denied?”
He added that the 60-70-decibels of noise affect those residents closest to LaGrange Road and that 80 is considered loud enough to constitute a health risk.
Blue Envelope Program
During the Feb. 23 meeting, Police Commissioner Dan Polk said the police department will be implementing a Blue Envelope Program for drivers on the autism spectrum.
“It’s a tool designed to help officers interact better with motorists on the autism spectrum,” Polk said. “So basically it addresses issues that sometimes people on the autism spectrum have physical movements and responses that might be misinterpreted by a police officer.”
To avoid that type of scenario, a driver would put his license, registration and insurance inside a blue envelope.
“The driver lets the officer know that they are a part of the Blue Envelope Program and hands the envelope to the officer,” Polk said. “That gives us an opportunity to understand where that person is coming from and we can direct our conversation appropriately.”
Polk said envelopes are available at the Palos Park Police Department, 8999 W. 123rd St.