Tinley Park trustees deny after-the-fact variance for 4 Messina Court driveway

Tinley Park Village Board trustees voted 3-1 on Oct. 7, 2025, to reject a requested variance that would have allowed a 49-foot-9-inch driveway curb cut at 4 Messina Court, saying the work built in the field deviated substantially from approved plans.

The request, presented for first reading as ordinance 2025-O-033, sought relief from the zoning ordinance’s 30-foot maximum driveway curb cut. Mike Coleman, interim community development director and building official, told the board that the driveway and other recent projects illustrated a pattern of homeowners acting as their own general contractors and installing work different from what was approved. Coleman said approved plans required brick on the first-floor exterior “up to the highest point of the second floor,” but the field work showed brick only up to about 3½ feet. He described multiple recent cases in which unpermitted structures, fences or…