Orland Park Mayor James Dodge said the village is going to fight business and homeowners who constantly break rules, ordinances and codes.
He said the rules are in place for a reason and he is getting complaints from residents who say that certain properties “look like hell.”
Dodge and the board made a decision to crack down on the rulebreakers as much as possible on Sept. 22 when it voted to amend the budget to allow three more employees to work in the code enforcement division of the Orland Park Police Department.
Village Manager George Koczwara outlined a plan to turn a three-person staff into a six-person unit to double up on seeking out and following up on those who are breaking the rules.
“The village has high standards,” Koczwara said. That’s the reason that businesses and residents move to Orland Park.
“Our code enforcement is staffed by three capable individuals, but the challenge we’re seeing now is that they simply cannot keep up with all of it. We have 22 square miles and we have a lot of businesses and a lot of homes.”
He said five code enforcement officers and one clerical staff member will be able to get out in the field more.
Recently, Dodge has been keeping his eyes peeled on resident feedback based on calls to the village handled by an AI chatbot. He said people have been complaining about neighbors who are letting their properties go.
“It’s been a perpetual issue,” Dodge said. “Somebody’s fence is not right. They are not cutting the grass…there is an awful lot going on.
“I just want to be clear on what we’re doing here. We’re increasing our ability to do code enforcement. It’s compliance. That’s the goal. That’s the intention for some of these actions.”
Trustee John Lawler said that in his own neighborhood, there are property owners who are not keeping up with the codes. He said there are 23,000 homes and 1,600 businesses in the village and he wants the code enforcement department to stay on top of these issues.
“We want people to know we’re not going to tolerate bad ownership,” he said.
Koczwara said there were other changes to the budget because of recent issues, both good and bad.
“In the last year, we’ve had a significant increase in general sales tax revenue,” he said. “This budget amendment increases our general sales tax revenue by $2.5 million, so it’s a significant jump.
“It’s helping us out because we had two tornados and at the last meeting the board had to approve a number of contracts and invoices to manage that, so this helps us address those from a position of strength.”
