Johnsburg yacht club and sailing school would not survive proposed zoning change, members say

If Johnsburg approves an amendment to the village’s zoning code, that change would shut down the Pistakee Yacht Club and the Community Sailing School, members told the planning and zoning commission this week.

Following a public hearing on the proposed change Thursday, commissioners tabled further discussion on the amendment until their Feb. 14 meeting.

“You are about to shut down the yacht club and the sailing school,” yacht club member Tom Kartheiser told the commission before the vote. “We are fighting city hall, and we can’t fight it.”

The 126-year-old yacht club and the village have been locked in a dispute over property used by the club and members to store boats and trailers. The club says that since 1970, before it was annexed into the village, it has had a McHenry County variance allowing storage on the property. The village believes the variance was given in error.

You are about to shut down the yacht club and the sailing school.”

—  Tom Kartheiser, Pistakee Yacht Club member

On Oct. 30, the yacht club sued the village in McHenry County court. The suit asks a judge for an injunction, stating the current use does not violate county zoning and that no fines are due to the village of Johnsburg. A ruling would also permanently prohibit the village from further enforcement efforts.

In a countersuit filed Dec. 4, the village asked for a declaration that using the property for boat storage is not a legal use and is also seeking a permanent injunction prohibiting boat storage by third parties on the disputed property.

The countersuit claims, in part, that the 1970 county resolution was in error as the club did not “publish notice that the subject property would be used for boat or any other storage.”

There is no dispute about the facts, Kartheiser said, but whether “the county variance or the village ordinance carry the day.”

Two suggested zoning ordinance changes were on the planning committee agenda.

One suggested change would put the burden of proof on the variance holder to show the legality of a nonconforming use. The language would require, as part of that proof, that written notice be given to all neighboring landowners within 250 feet of the property or published in a newspaper before it received a variance. Violation of the proposed new ordinance would fine the property owner $200 a day.

The second zoning amendment would limit personal storage of recreational vehicles, including boats, campers and other motor sports equipment to just four. Those items would have to be registered to the owner at that property.

Village attorney Michael Smoron said during the meeting that current fines for zoning code violations were too low to be a sufficient deterrent – part of the reason for adding the “burden of proof” section.

For the storage concern, the zoning change would make its language similar to that in village ordinances, Smoron said.

Neither the yacht club nor the sailing school owns any of the boats it uses, Kartheiser said, adding that they are owned by members. Boats not on the water are then stored at the adjacent property.

Without storage of boats when out of the water, neither the club nor the school would have boats to sail, Kartheiser said. Club supporters say they would lose members if they can’t store their boats there.

Following the public hearing, the commissioners agreed to table the issue until they could learn more about the yacht club.

“I know nothing of what you are saying,” Commissioner James Barrett said of the dispute.

Commission Chairman Curt Larsen agreed, saying they may only be hearing one side of the story. “I would like to know all of the story,” he said.

Kartheiser, speaking to a reporter following the meeting, said he did want to clear up a misconception. The village, he said, has not tried to buy the yacht club in the past.

At one point, facing a steep property tax bill and just a handful of members, the club did approach the village about donating the clubhouse to it. That exchange never happened as club members did not want to give up its control of the building and those talks ended, Kartheiser said.