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Machesney Park committee backs variances, amends plan for mobile-home court at 9305 N. Second St.
Summary
The Planning and Economic Development Committee voted 3–2 to amend a staff-recommended condition and forward a variance and zoning-change recommendation for a longtime mobile-home court at 9305 N. Second St.; the applicant sought to allow 40 sites and reduced setbacks while staff stressed inspections and limits on increased density.
The Machesney Park Planning and Economic Development Committee voted on Nov. 3 to forward a package of variances and a zoning-map amendment for a mobile-home court at 9305 North Second Street to the full board with a positive recommendation, after amending staff’s condition to allow 40 sites.
Village planning staff told the committee the property on Rainbow Lane has been a preexisting, nonconforming mobile-home court since annexation in 1983 and that code performance standards — including a 25-foot setback from property boundaries, a 20-foot separation between units and a density requirement of 6,000 square feet per unit — make replacing or adding units impractical on the existing lots. "Staff is recommending approval of variances from 12 requirements listed as performance standards in the mobile home zoning district," planning staff said, while also recommending inspections, a new fence and private-road improvements by February 2027.
Trustees debated whether to accept a site plan that shows 42 sites or to use the applicant’s requested number of 40. Trustee Bailey moved and the committee amended condition 2 to allow 40 lots; the amendment passed on roll call 3–2 (Trustee Sipes, Trustee Bailey and Trustee Roe voted aye; Mister Yeo and Miss Miller voted nay). The committee then voted to send ordinance 39-25, the variance, to the board "as amended."
Blake Stubbs, the applicant’s attorney, said the applicant worked with a professional architect and consulted Deputy Fire Chief Kevin Briggs and the Illinois Department of Public Health on safety and licensure. Stubbs told the committee the client estimates the revised square footage per unit "would be somewhere between 3,004," and asked the committee to allow 15 feet of separation between units instead of the code-required 20.
A nearby resident, Scott Cordell of Crystal Drive, urged removing the park altogether and criticized the site’s history of noncompliance, telling the committee, "I would recommend getting rid of the trailer park completely." The chair interrupted to say the committee "can't say that they're bringing anybody here" in response to an earlier comment that linked prospective residents to people from Chicago.
Staff said it does not support a variance that would increase density beyond what currently exists except to allow current units to remain; if units are destroyed or found uninhabitable they must be removed rather than replaced into a higher-density configuration. Staff recommended that any approved variances require inspections and repairs to bring homes up to code, and that units beyond repair be removed.
Ordinance 40-25, the related zoning-map amendment to reclassify the property to the Mobile Home District, also received a positive recommendation and will be forwarded to the full board.
The recommendation on ordinance 39-25 goes next to the full board for final action.
