Freeport is Locally Regulated...And it Shows

Freeport citizens are being told how important home rule is because it allows for "local decisions by local people."  With home rule the Freeport City Council has great latitude to, purportedly, solve uniquely local problems.  But how does it work in real life?

In the following instances local regulation appears to be failing miserably.  But don't expect any city council members to acknowledge a problem, they prefer to pretend this blog doesn't exist and that I'm just a lone wolf, one of the ways local leaders seek to marginalize any voice of dissent, much less attempt a public refutation thereby enlightening their constituencies. 

Home rule, in reality, means that the Freeport City Council answers to no one at no time.

Anyway,  this past May, I posted on this blog about the lack of consideration for pedestrians when the new parking lot was constructed at the northeast corner of  Stephenson Street and Walnut Avenue.  A "curb cut",  an entrance for cars to cross the sidewalk, was made on the well used pedestrian route of  Stephenson Street.  Here is a picture of this curb cut.    

One of the motivations behind the new Chicago Avenue "streetscape" was pedestrian safety and accessibility, both very worthy community goals.  However, if anything goes when it comes to curb cuts for cars, those goals are already lost.

And what about curb cuts in residential areas?  Are there any zoning or other mechanisms by which these are regulated?  Maybe that doesn't sound too important to you at this point, perhaps it would matter more if your neighbor decided to make a curb cut and concrete much of their front lawn while a creating a parking spot a mere feet from your home.

Take what has happened in the 1200 block of Lincoln Boulevard for instance.  A homeowner there decided that they wanted a curb cut in the front of their house, never mind the fact there has never been a curb cut on on the south side of the 1200 block of Lincoln Boulevard and the curb cut was not created for access to a garage.  The residents of this block all have alley access for their garages.

So, evidently, you can create your own curb cut, as this homeowner has obviously done.  Here is a picture.

So City of Freeport officials, this is acceptable under current Freeport zoning and building permit ordinances?  Can someone concrete their entire front lawn and create head in parking for half a dozen vehicles? 

What about the lost parking places?  Doesn't this mean that property owners, in a de facto sense, own the street parking in front of their property.  If I can turn the street side of my house into one long curb cut, denying my neighbors use of street parking, how can it be said that I don't "own" the street?

Disclaimer, I do not personally know the homeowner in question.  However, this is definitely an issue the city council needs to take up before one of their neighbors, or yours, does something similar.

As always, yours in honesty, John Samuel Cook, 2022

tutty.baker@gmail.Com