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County OKs Fairdale Rezoning Zoning officials to allow residents to pick up building permits starting today By ADAM POULISSE apoulisse@shawmedia.com FAIRDALE – Both the DeKalb County Board and Planning and Zoning Commission unanimously approved rezoning the tiny unincorporated town of Fairdale that was mostly destroyed in the April 9 tornado into a mixed-use development, which gives residents more freedom to rebuild. “I’m really glad we finally got this plan together,” County Board Chairman and Planning and Zoning member Mark Pi-
etrowski, Jr., said. “We’ve been talking about it for what seems like a very long time.” Beginning today, Fairdale residents can pick up their building permits at the Planning, Zoning and Building department and rebuild under the new specifications, where the building permit fees were waved, Pietrowski said. Anywhere from 36 to 50 of the 66 Fairdale residences will be rebuilt, with the start on at least six of them before the winter, according to Bill Nicklas, President of the DeKalb County
Long Term Recovery Corporation. “This now takes us over the hurdle that was posed by the older zoning, which had deeper setbacks, which would have made a lot of the [properties] ... illegal and nonconforming,” Nicklas said. “They were OK as long as they stood, now they’re gone.” Before the county’s decision Wednesday, Fairdale was an agricultural zone, and consisted of houses and land use that were in place before county zoning, but they were grandfathered in
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when zoning took place. Many Fairdale homes were out of step with modern requirements, such as the distance from a house to a street, property lines, the height of fences and well and septic system guidelines. Under the former zoning, residents would have been required to rebuild their property exactly as it was before, which many said they don’t want to do. The new set of rules include allowing residents to build right up to the lot line on an interior street, and as close as
five feet to an interior lot line, Planning and Zoning Executive Director Paul Miller said. “[The residents of Fairdale] have known for weeks what those setbacks are going to be,” Miller said. “Our anticipation is many of them already have their plans ready or in various states of ready, and as soon as they get their financing clear, they’ll be coming out.” Nicklas said one family has been connected with a faithbased group that builds one house a year, and another family with limited means have
been working with a modular home builder to meet their needs. “There’s a couple of tough, challenging situations that I think we’re getting around,” Nicklas said. Miller said some families who have said they won’t rebuild may decide to do so later after finances clear up, while neighbors also have been discussing with each other the possibility of buying the adjoining property. “That’s the flexibility we’ve been talking about,” he said.
REALTORS QUESTION CITY’S PURCHASE The city recently bought a house located at 622 W. Lincoln Highway, DeKalb, which they plan to demolish and use as space for a parking lot and potential police department expansion.
1-month budget bill fails in the Illinois House
Katie Smith – ksmith@shawmedia.com
By SARA BURNETT and JOHN O’CONNOR The Associated Press SPRINGFIELD – A spending plan allowing Illinois to limp through the month while a long-term budget battle rages failed in the House on Wednesday and hopes for a temporary fix dimmed even before facing an almost certain veto by Gov. Bruce Rauner. The Democratic-controlled Legislature and the Republican governor have been unable to reach on agreement on a budget for the new fiscal year that began Wednesday. So Democrats attempted to keep “essential services” moving, such as operating veterans’ homes, child care and police protection, with a $2.3 billion, one-month stopgap. The Senate endorsed the plan. In the House, it needed 71 votes and fell four short. “My goal is to avoid a shutdown of core, critical services,” House Speaker Michael Madigan said in a statement as his chamber adjourned until next week. “I believe that should be the top priority of the governor and the Legislature at this moment.” Rauner, entering his seventh month in the top spot, has insisted that before negotiating a budget with Democrats, they must approve overhauls to make Illinois more business-friendly and less susceptible to political corruption. Democrats say the ideas, such as restricting lawsuits and payments to injured workers, freezing property taxes and term limits for politicians, are unrelated to state spending and want him to help find money to close a $4 billion gap in the $36 billion budget Rauner vetoed last week. Short of that, they looked for help to keep the lights on in state government in a maneuver used several times in the past decade. Moderate Democratic Rep. Jack Franks of Marengo said he agrees with Rauner on issues such as the property-tax freeze and term limits and “he ought to get some victories.” “But ladies and gentleman, we’re not talking about statistics, and this is not an abstract thing that we are doing here today,” Franks said. “These are real people that, if we don’t provide them with the resources they need, real people are going to suffer.”
Paid too much?
DeKalb closes on property, sold for more than twice market value By BRITTANY KEEPERMAN bkeeperman@shawmedia.com DeKALB – The city of DeKalb paid about twice the market value for a property the City Council voted to buy last week to make room for a future police department parking lot expansion, a real estate agent said. Mary Rita Nelson, a broker with Castle View Real Estate in DeKalb, said the city could have had the house and the land, which is adjacent to the police station at 622 W. Lincoln Highway, for much less. The city bought the property for $228,527, even though it had been listed at $145,000 in a short sale, according to a variety of real estate websites. “The numbers don’t make sense,” Nelson said. “My understanding is that they are going to use it for a parking lot. They aren’t doing it the smart way.”
By the numbers
volved,” said Dean Frieders, the city’s attorney. “Because it had gone completely through the foreclosure process, they didn’t have any interest in discussing or even negotiating a short sale.” The city negotiated with the owner, David B. Storm, based on payoff amounts provided by the bank, said Ellen Divita, the city’s community development director. “[The bank] provided the payoff amount to the owner, and we agreed to the number,” she said. The home had two mortgages on it, one was a 30-year agreement for $118,000, issued in 2005. An additional 15-year mortgage of $30,000 was issued in 2007, with an irregular last payment due amounting to more than $23,000, according to property records. Frieders said the city bought the property for the price of the full judgments against it, including mortgages and other ex-
Q The house was built in 1918 and is a
1,292 square-foot single-family home with 2-bedrooms, 1-bathroom and a 1-car garage. Q The home was listed for $145,000 for short sale on June 10. Q The city paid $228,527 The house, which is on an acre, had two mortgages against it and was in foreclosure. The city plans to demolish the house in the next six to eight months and eventually use the property for police department use, such as a parking lot. The property was scheduled to be auctioned off at a sheriff’s sale July 9, according to DeKalb County property records. City officials said the bank wasn’t willing to make a deal on a short sale. “We talked to all lenders in-
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penses. The owner hadn’t made mortgage payments in years, city officials said. A full judgment against the property for the first loan of $118,000 by Nationstar Mortgage LLC amounted to $185,895, according to DeKalb County Circuit Court records. The jump from $118,000 to $185,895 included “accrued interest, advances and other amounts” totalling $177,562, additional interest from December 2014 to April 2015 in the amount of $2,077, cost of the lawsuit in the amount of $2,000 and attorney’s fees of $4,255, court records show. DeKalb County Judge Thomas Doherty presided over the case. He couldn’t be reached Wednesday for comment. DeKalb Mayor John Rey said he wasn’t directly involved with negotiation, but was adamant
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