Des Plaines resident Clover Krajicek refers to the vacant lot next door simply as “the swamp.”
“There’s standing water on it whenever there’s a significant amount of rain or whenever the ground is saturated,” said Krajicek, 47. “People in the past bought it, found out they couldn’t build on it and sold it.”
But a Des Plaines resident’s plan to build a two-story home on the lot — despite the objections of city zoning and engineering officials, would-be neighbors and even Mayor Tony Arredia — has Krajicek worried that her own yard will soon become a swamp.
In May 1999, Yiannis Georgopoulos bought the quarter-acre lot at 1054 S. Des Plaines River Rd. for $40,000. At the time, he said, he had been told by a city employee that although the lot was in the flood plain, building a home there wouldn’t be a problem.
Only later, when he applied for a building permit, did he learn that the city’s flood plain development guidelines would prohibit construction of a home there, he said. Now he is asking for a variance so that he can build anyway.
On May 15, a divided City Council voted to give preliminary approval to Georgopoulos’ variance request. Some aldermen said they agreed with Georgopoulos’ claim that he got inaccurate information from City Hall; others said they voted to allow the home because they didn’t think it would aggravate flooding noticeably.
But neighboring property owners are imploring council members not to give final approval to the request.
If approved, the variance would free Georgopoulos from the flood plain guidelines, which require owners of land in a flood plain to build a retention pond whenever construction would result in a loss of floodwater storage.
Georgopoulos’ lot is partly in the 10-year flood plain, where there is a 10 percent chance of flooding in any given year, and partly in the 100-year flood plain, where there is a 1 percent chance.
Without the variance, city officials said, Georgopoulos couldn’t build at all: The lot is so low that building a retention pond there would be impossible.
The city’s community development director, Michael D’Onofrio, has recommended against the variance, writing in a staff report that Georgopoulos’ proposed home could displace storm water onto other properties.
In January, the city’s Planning Commission agreed with D’Onofrio and recommended the variance be denied. And in February, the city’s Flood Committee, a 15-member advisory panel of residents and government officials, voted to oppose the variance.
But the City Council has final say on the matter, and a majority of aldermen — Tom Becker, Dick Sayad, Carla Brookman, Don Smith and Joyce Petersen — voted for preliminary approval.
“I have a problem when someone comes into City Hall and says, `Can I build on this land?’ and somebody says, `Yes, you can build,’ and then he goes and spends $40,000 to buy the land, and then he goes back in, and they tell him, `No, you can’t build there,’ ” Sayad said. “That’s a hardship as far as I’m concerned.”
Council members Patricia Beauvais, Wayne Elstner and Tom Christiansen, whose ward encompasses the property, voted against it.
Mayor Arredia said granting the variance would compromise his ability as a city leader to urge communities upstream from Des Plaines to refrain from allowing construction along the Des Plaines River.
Georgopoulos, who has lived in Des Plaines for 21 years, said that before he decided to buy the lot, an employee in the city’s Community Development Department told him that it was in the flood plain, and building there carried certain restrictions, according to his lawyer, Dan Dowd. The flood development guidelines would require Georgopoulos to elevate his house so that the lowest floor would be at least 1 foot above the flood plain. But Dowd said Georgopoulos was not told that a retention pond also was required and did not know that the property couldn’t sustain one anyway.
Through his attorney, Georgopoulos declined to comment.
D’Onofrio said his office doesn’t have any record of Georgopoulos’ casual inquiry. “I’ve been doing this long enough to know that there’s a lot of revisionist history that goes on,” he said. “Some people hear, `Yes, I can build on it,’ and then they don’t listen after that. . . . Nobody in my department would give anybody a wrong answer.”
Meanwhile, residents of nearby homes have inundated the City Council with pleas that the variance be rejected.
“I do feel sympathy for the petitioner since he now owns property that should not be developed,” Linda Caruth of the 1800 block of Bennett Place wrote in a letter to Arredia. “But should the entire city of Des Plaines be liable for his poor decision?”
City Engineer Tim Oakley said construction on Georgopoulos’ lot would affect nearby properties only minimally, if at all.
