Was Burr Ridge Fair In Both Zoning Cases?

BURR RIDGE, IL – In May, a Burr Ridge man got approval from the village's zoning panel to build a detached garage, letting him expand his hobby of restoring classic cars.

Two months later, the same panel unanimously rejected a wheelchair user's request for a detached garage for greater accessibility. It may go to the Village Board for a vote as early as Monday.

In an interview last week, the wheelchair user, Judy Rohan, and her husband, Michael, questioned why the Plan Commission would reject their request when it approved the other one. They and others noted the car enthusiast donated $2,900 to Mayor Gary Grasso's failed congressional campaign in March.

"I'm not saying anything improper happened between Mr. Panico and the village," Judy Rohan said. "It certainly gives an appearance of impropriety."

Plan Commission member Richard Morton, who is a wheelchair user himself, said in an interview he knew nothing about the contribution to Grasso. And he said the two zoning cases were "night and day."

The one major similarity is that both requests involved a detached garage. From there, differences exist.

Village records indicate the Rohans proposed a garage outside the buildable area, infringing on the setback for the 94th Street easement.

By contrast, Panico's garage was planned for inside the buildable area at his house in the 8300 block of Fars Cove.

Another key difference with Panico's request is that it involved an issue that goes back 17 years – to the first months of Grasso's first term as mayor, long before he set sights on Congress.

In 2005, a zoning employee initially approved Panico's plans for his house, including a sideyard garage on the site of the recently approved one.

But the Plan Commission then rejected the garage, based on the village staff's later advice. The dispute hinged on the definition of an attached garage. Panico had a proposed masonry wall connecting the sideyard garage to the house.

The last-minute changes forced Panico to either delay construction for several months or move forward without the sideyard garage, Panico said in his recent request for an exception to the village code. He said he chose to move forward because of personal considerations. If he had gotten what he wanted back then, he would now have three garages.

"The inability to build a third garage imposes a hardship I tried to avoid from the very beginning, that is, having inadequate storage for my classic automobiles," Panico said in the request.

In a June 30, 2005, letter, then-Village Planner Doug Pollock apologized to Panico "for our failure to provide accurate and complete information" during the resident's first meetings with a village zoning employee.

"I can assure you that we have learned from this experience and will take positive actions to ensure that this does not occur again," said Pollock, who left as village administrator in late 2020.

His letter was written during Grasso's second month as mayor.

In an interview this week, Panico said his donation was not connected to the zoning matter.

"I was not looking for any special favors from anybody," he said. "The fact that I supported Gary had nothing to do with it. It's appalling that anyone would try to connect those two."

He noted he has served as the chairman of the Institute for Business and Professional Ethics at DePaul University.

Panico said he was unaware of the Rohans' situation.

"I feel for them if they need a special accommodation," he said. "Requirements are requirements. You have to set the line somewhere. That's not my issue to deal with."

Grasso did not return a message for comment. He served as mayor from 2005 to 2012 and returned to the helm in 2019.