The Village of Homer Glen held a public hearing Sept. 25 on authorizing execution of an intergovernmental cooperative planning and jurisdictional boundary agreement with the village of New Lenox. The board opened the hearing, took staff comments, recorded that no members of the public submitted comments, and then closed the hearing by roll call.

Staff noted a single substantive change to the draft agreement. According to staff, earlier wording had said that New Lenox “shall consider” providing sanitary sewer service in an open annexation area. Staff told trustees that the phrase was vague and did not create any enforceable obligation; that language was removed from the draft agreement. “There was never any concrete obligation written in the prior agreement requiring New Lenox to provide any sort of sanitary service… The language that they use was simply they shall consider it. Because that's all wishy-washy…and because it's really not giving anything, that language was stricken out of the agreement in its entirety,” a staff speaker told the board.

No public comments

The board asked whether any public comments had been filed for the hearing; staff and the mayor confirmed none were submitted and none spoke during the hearing period. The board then closed the hearing and proceeded to the next agenda item.

Why it matters: Intergovernmental boundary agreements define future annexation, utility provision and jurisdictional responsibility. The removal of the “shall consider” language clarifies that the draft does not create an enforceable obligation on New Lenox to provide sewer service; trustees said the change was the only substantive edit.

Ending: The hearing was closed by roll call and no vote to execute the agreement is recorded in the public record at this meeting; the board moved on to other agenda items.