 | First, realize that the petitioner now
has the opportunity to sit on his petition or forward it to the County
Board for a vote, at his leisure. It is up to him to put it on the
County Board's voting agenda, and they may want to play a waiting game
to see if you will become disinterested and go away. |
| Someone must call the County
Board office every month and check to see if your petition has been
put on the voting agenda. The voting meetings are public and are held
on the 3rd Tuesday of every month at the Government Center in
Woodstock. |
| The very best action your group
can take at the County Board level is to have an official petition
of objection drawn up. The law states that if owner(s) of land
immediately touching or across a street, alley or public right-of-way
from at least 20% of the perimeter of the land to be rezoned sign the
petition of objection in front of a notary and file it with the County
Board, any zoning amendment would require a 3/4 super majority
vote to pass. You will then only need 7 opposing votes to win. Copies
of the signed and notarized petition must be sent by certified mail
to the petitioner, his lawyer, and the trustees of land that is in
trust ownership. The return receipts for the certified mail must be
turned in with the original copy of this special petition 24 hours
before the vote. Be wise and get this ready as soon as possible. We
did not mail the copies out until we knew the petition was on the
voting agenda (6 months after the ZBA vote), as we wanted to keep the
petitioner and his lawyer off guard, but this can be a very dangerous
game because of the mail. We almost didn't get our return receipts
back in time due to a holiday, so I don't think that waiting to file
this special petition is a good idea. |
| If the petition is not on the
voting agenda, organize people from your group to come and speak at
the County Board "Public Participation" part of the meeting.
You must sign-in and indicate you wish to speak. You will be allowed 3
minutes. Be sure to mention the petition # and have people talk
about the different issues. You can do this at every meeting you are
not on the voting agenda.
The reason you need to do this is to
educate the Board members about your issues. For example, the
testimony from our ZBA hearings was over 400 pages long. That
testimony was then summarized - fairly, I'm sure, by a "Zoning
Board Coordinator" into 3 pages. That 3 pages is the only
information the County Board receives when the petition is put on
their voting agenda, so you definitely need to educate them.
|
| When you petition has finally been put
on the voting agenda, you need to put as much pressure as possible on
the Board Members - you can believe the petitioner and his lawyer are
doing the same. Xerox a letter to all your people alerting them that
the final vote is within the next few weeks. Include a list of the
County Board members' names, addresses, and phone numbers and urge
everyone to call them and/or to write a letter of opposition. The
Board members have said that they like to "talk to their
constituents", so call - call - call. Others can write letters
and address it to the Board office; include a note asking that a copy
be put in each Board Member's office mailbox. Letters must include
your name and address or they won't be distributed.
|
| Finally, a few days before the vote,
call your members and ask them to keep your members informed - a short
update note will help to keep them involved so that when the final
vote comes up you will be able to rally their support.
|
Environmental
Defenders of McHenry County 
