La Grange Critic's Fees May Be Dropped: Official

LA GRANGE, IL – A critic of La Grange's village government may see his remaining balance with the village disappear.

Resident Jonathan Robinson owes $2,871 to the village for its consideration of his zoning proposals. He said his ideas would help residents deal with big proposed developments.

His initial fee was $1,500, which he has paid.

In an email to Patch late last week, Village President Mark Kuchler said he planned to recommend that the staff waive Robinson's remaining balance.

"I expect that will happen," he said.

At last week's Village Board meeting, Robinson said he had gotten a meeting with Kuchler about his concerns.

He said he assumed a previous Patch story, supportive online comments and backers at Plan Commission meetings helped him get a conversation with Kuchler.

"Just understand that what we do, what we say, does matter," Robinson said. "It does appear that they will drop these charges."

In January, he got a hearing with the Plan Commission over his proposals to record commission meetings, require developer meeting with neighbors and restrict developments near single-family houses.

The village's staff opposed all of his ideas, but the Plan Commission supported recording meetings and requiring developer meetings. Kuchler told Patch last week that he expected those two things to happen.

In the previous story, Robinson said he had been "excessively billed." And he said developers receive more attention from village staff when they go through the same process as he did. He said it appeared as if the staff viewed him as a problem to be "handled."

Recently, the village admitted it was wrong when it said that it gave residents nine months' notice for a planned condo development on Burlington Avenue. Neighbors were actually given a 15-day heads-up before the originally scheduled zoning hearing.

The village's documents indicated that the condos' setbacks would "violate" Robinson's property.