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Board of Adjustment approves 2-foot extension to Clearwater Lake cabin
Summary
The Cook County Board of Adjustment approved a modest two-foot extension to a replacement cabin at Clearwater Lake, amending a 2023 variance and requiring the same conditions previously imposed, including a 10-foot shoreline buffer planted with native species.
The Cook County Board of Adjustment on April 9 voted to approve a two-foot extension to a replacement cabin at Clearwater Lake, amending a 2023 variance for the property owned by Tom Probst (variance 2025-7V).
The amendment was requested to add two feet to the bedroom portion of the cabin so the occupants could move more freely; staff recommended approval, noting the change is modest and consistent with the findings made when the 2023 variance was granted.
Neva, a county planner, told the board the property is a half-acre lot with about 150 feet of Clearwater Lake shoreline in the Lakeshore Residential Zone District and that the 2023 approval had allowed a replacement cabin with minor modifications (a three-foot roof-height increase and elimination of a 29-square-foot indent). She said the additional two feet is in a part of the building set back from the lake, about 37 feet from the shoreline, and does not change the cabin’s footprint within the shoreland setback area. Neva also noted there are no impervious-surface or wetland issues, that the septic was replaced in February 2009, and that adjoining properties have received similar variances.
Applicant Tom Probst told the board the two feet would improve habitability: “Boy, if you could get 2 more feet, that would make all the difference,” and said he wanted to do the work “the right way.” During discussion board members described the amendment as minor and reasonable. A board member noted that a condition of the 2023 variance required planting a 10-foot shoreline buffer of native plants and shrubs to improve vegetation along the shore; the board recorded that the same conditions from 2023 should remain in effect.
Courtney (board member) moved to approve the amendment with the same conditions required in the 2023 variance; the motion was seconded. The board called the question; the motion carried. The amendment approval requires the property owner to meet the previously imposed conditions, including the shoreline-buffer planting specified in the 2023 approval.
The board did not record individual vote names in the public discussion but announced the motion carried with no opposition. The file materials included one letter of support submitted by an adjacent property owner and public notice published in the Cook County News-Herald on March 21.
The county staff memo and packet list the 2023 variance findings and four conditions; the board agreed the findings remained applicable to this modest amendment.
