Hinsdale Home Builder Cited For Project: Village

HINSDALE, IL — A Hinsdale home builder was cited last month for work apparently done in violation of village codes, according to records.

The matter came up Wednesday during a discussion by the Historic Preservation Commission of the demolition of the house at 720 S. Elm St.

The village has not approved a demolition permit yet for the Italianate house. But a crew from Donegal Services, an excavating company, showed up in the late afternoon of Feb. 3 to dig on the property for about three hours, according to a village timeline.

Digging began the next day at 8 a.m. But the village ordered the crew to stop work. The contractor, Hinsdale-based J. Jordan Homes, was issued a warning.

The next day, ComEd showed up on the property. J. Jordan was again notified to halt all work. The village issued J. Jordan two citations.

At the meeting, Commissioner William Haarlow said it appeared the work on the property was "predicated on the assumption that we would have approved a certificate of demolition at the February meeting."

"For some reason, at least Donegal and ComEd were not notified or chose to ignore instructions, which seems unlikely," Haarlow said.

The Feb. 2 meeting was canceled because of weather.

In response to Haarlow, Julie Laux, owner of J. Jordan, said she had proof that her company had informed Donegal that it had no demolition permit yet.

"The minute we were made aware of that, we stopped it," Laux said. "That was a mistake. You're right, we were cited. We will deal with that in court, where it belongs."

Patch wrote a story Friday on the issue of the demolition.