EAST PEORIA, Ill. — One group of neighbors and their developer in East Peoria, passionately opposed to the addition of a new AirBnB-style short term rental in their community, are revealing some successful legal cases waged against the rentals.
Current court rulings show there is at least one municipal organization in the state effectively cracking down on short term rentals for operating in violation of residential zoning rules.
A Peoria-based attorney came before the East Peoria City Council Tuesday to shed more light on the subject during a debate over special use permits.
John P. Fleming, a long-time attorney in central Illinois, lists experience with “premises liability and property damage cases” on his Fleming Law Office website.
During Tuesday’s regular East Peoria City Council meeting, Fleming listed two lawsuits involving the Village of Barrington Hills, a neighborhood in the Chicagoland area. Court rulings in both cases favored harsh penalties levied by the village on certain short-term rental operators who violated local zoning codes.
However, the lack of any special use permitting rules for short term rentals appears to be the only factor which allowed for such a hardline approach by village authorities there.
An argument which multiple council members in East Peoria believed could carry some weight in Illinois civil courts and have some impact for municipalities here, though, involved agreements, or “covenants” like the one penned between homeowners who live off Boyd Parkway & College Drive and the larger firm overseeing further development of their subdivision, cited as “Villa Five”, according to Fleming.
Hayden Burtis, son of the man who owns the East Peoria property which was in question before Commissioners Tuesday, read aloud a letter from his father, Jeff Burtis, which stated in part that the family had, “watched covenants change several times” in the neighborhood and that they “are not looking to turn their home into a hotel or bachelor party spot.”
Commissioner Michael Sutherland said at one point, “I think that when they take this to court, the covenant’s going to prevail.”
At the same time, Sutherland voted with three other Commissioners in favor of allowing a special use permit for the short term rental at Brookstone Drive and U.S. 24.
East Peoria Mayor John Kahl was the lone vote against the special use permit. Commissioner Seth Mingus also reminded short term rental opponents that the city will retain the authority to revoke the permit if the new operation becomes a nuisance or public safety risk.
Any legal resolutions over deeds, covenants or other agreements signed between neighborhood groups, homeowners associations and their larger development firms remain to be seen.
