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Wheaton homeowner seeks zoning variance to keep permanent basketball hoop in driveway
Summary
At an Oct. 15 DuPage County hearing, David Savinok asked the Zoning Hearing Officer to allow a permanently installed basketball hoop in front of his Wheaton driveway. An adjoining neighbor objected on noise grounds; a nearby resident said she had no objection. The hearing officer closed the record and will issue a recommendation Nov. 5.
The DuPage County Zoning Hearing Officer heard testimony Oct. 15 from David Savinok of Wheaton requesting a variance to allow a permanently affixed basketball hoop in the front/side portion of his driveway.
The request, filed for a property in unincorporated Milton Township, followed objections filed by the DuPage County Building Department and comments from Milton Township and the Milton Township Highway Department. The hearing officer received two exhibits: a 2015 survey and a marked-up site plan showing the hoop's location.
Savinoк identified the apparatus as a permanently set basketball hoop, anchored in concrete at the side of his driveway. He said the hoop has been at the property since he bought the house in 2020 or 2021 and that he expects to keep it while his children are young — “somewhere between 10 and 15 years.” He told the panel, “I don't wanna keep getting violations for something I didn't know I wasn't allowed to have.”
An adjoining property owner, Stanley Hlady of 119 Depple Avenue, testified in opposition, saying the repeated sound of a basketball bouncing off the driveway is a neighborhood nuisance and “it penetrates the windows, the doors.” Savinok responded that playing basketball on a driveway is common and noted he had asked Hlady to reduce noise from a radio in a shed.
Barbara Jackelin, a resident within the 300-foot notice area, told the hearing she had attended to learn what the petition covered and said she did not object when she learned the request was for a basketball hoop: “a basketball hoop I am not concerned with.”
The hearing officer said the board must evaluate the zoning standards that govern variations and closed the record for the Sabinach (Savinok) petition. The officer said a decision will be announced at the recommendation meeting scheduled for 3 p.m. on Nov. 5; that recommendation will go to the county development committee and then to the full county board for final action.
Exhibits, objections and written comments from the building department and Milton Township will be included in the record for the Nov. 5 recommendation meeting.
No final action was taken at the Oct. 15 hearing; interested parties were invited to appear again at the Nov. 5 recommendation meeting in person or by Zoom.
