All Comments For Allowing Tents In Elmhurst

Elmhurst IL

29 November, 2021

8:00 AM

Description

ELMHURST, IL — Earlier this month, the Elmhurst city government revealed it was considering easing its ban on tents for residents to grow their own food during the winter. Over the last couple of weeks, the city has received 137 written comments on the subject — all of them for loosening the rules. Most favor going further than what the city is proposing. City Manager Jim Grabowski is asking the city to consider allowing tents up to 120 square feet and 9 feet in height. The tents could not be up for more than six months a year, according to city documents. The residents, however, are asking the city to allow tents, often called hoop houses, to be up to 400 square feet. They said the tents should be subject to the city's rule that structures in residential areas cannot exceed 30 percent of lots. At 7 p.m. Tuesday at City Hall, the city's Zoning and Planning Commission plans to hold a public hearing on Grabowski's proposal. The written comments are on the city's website. "In Elmhurst, there are already concerns over how the so-called McMansions and other structures are taking over our ground cover, causing rainwater drainage issues," Spring Road resident Y. Franklin Ishida said. But he said simple hoop houses up to 400 square feet would not only allow for continued drainage of rainwater, but provide for food security. Former Elmhurst Alderwoman Paula Pezza sounded a similar note. "While so many 'structures' are built on some type of cement foundation, a covered garden is built on top of soil," she said. "Having the right to grow food on your own property should not be something government considers punishable by law, but rather an allowable option, much needed in today's times, to feed your family and provide accessible, healthy food." Others praised resident Nicole Virgil, who has long fought the city's hoop house ban. "Mrs. Virgil has persevered through this issue valiantly for years in order to manifest gardening legislation that allows the entire community to literally reap the benefits she has sown," Second Street resident Lisa Hoffer said. "Yet, here we go again with yet another obstacle to stop a perfectly natural and unobtrusive use of a private citizen's home and property." Like others, Hoffer called the proposal allowing 120 square feet grossly insufficient for growing enough produce. In February 2019, a split City Council decided to continue to ban such tents in nearly all cases, except low tunnels or low cold frames over crops. Then-Mayor Steve Morley broke the tie against allowing tents. This upset many residents, who said the prohibition would prevent them from growing food during the winter. Since the vote, six of the council's 14 members have changed. As an alderman in 2019, Mayor Scott Levin, who took the helm last spring, was on the opposite side of Morley on the hoop house issue.