Naked Person Prompts La Grange Family's Request

LA GRANGE, IL — A La Grange family earlier this year decided to seek a 6-foot wooden fence in its front yard, in part, because of a harrowing experience involving a naked person in its shed, village documents state.

On Monday, the La Grange Village Board is set to vote on whether to give Heather and James Zeman an exemption from the zoning code to build the fence at 5005 Willow Springs Road, which is a few houses away from the local hospital.

In June, the village's Zoning Board of Appeals voted 4-2 to recommend against the proposal.

At the zoning board meeting, Heather Zeman said that after her family bought the home in October, a naked person who left the hospital came onto their property and took refuge in their shed, according to meeting minutes. She said she was unaware the person was on her property until police arrived to move the person out of the shed. This, she told the board, frightened both her and her children.

After that incident, she was told by the previous owner that it was not the first time that someone had come onto the property and broken into the shed, according to the minutes.

In the months afterward, Zeman said she would find medical debris, condoms, cigarettes and alcohol in the yard. The natural barrier of bushes no longer protects the property when the leaves falls, she said.

The board's chairman, Michael Finder, said a lot of residents would probably want fences in their front yards if they could. He said if the village granted the exemption, it would amount to a special privilege.

Member Paul Kerpan agreed, saying it would open the village up to many requests for front-yard fencing.

However, Member Liam Bresnahan said the village code advises officials to provide high quality housing options for residents and that the fence would improve the home's value.

Member Clayton Edwards also favored the fence proposal. He said it was an unusual block in that the Zemans' Hillberry Court neighbors' back yards face Willow Springs, next to the Zemans' property. One of the houses has a fence on Willow Springs.

Edwards and Bresnahan were the only votes for the fence request.