ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD

August

5,

1971

John Ciancio and

Margaret Ciancio,

his wife

V.

)

PCB 71—100

Environmental Protection

Agency)

Hercules Paul Zagoras, Attorney

for John and Margaret Ciancio

Delbert Haschemeyer, Attorney

for Environmental Protection Agency

Separate Opinion

(by Mr. Kissel):

In

a letter dated April

30,

1971, John and Margaret

Ciancio

(the “Petitioners”) requested a variance

of the

Board from Paragraph

7 of the Order entered against the

North Shore sanitary District

(the “District”)

on March

31,

1971,

~

~

PCB7O—7,

70—12,

70—13 and

70—14.

The Petitioners

state that they presently reside

ifl

Waukegan,

Illinois in

a

four room house with one bathroom.

The house

is grossly inadequate

for the Petitioners~ family

because they have five children,

As the letter puts

it:

“We just can~t take it any more

~“

The Petitioners wish

to construct

a new house at another location and they wish

to install an extension of an existing sewer

line and

connect to

it,

The sewage would go to

the

Waukegan

plant

of the Districts

The Environmental Protection Agency

(the

“Agency”)

filed a recommendation asking that the Variance

Petition

be denied.

A hearing on

the Petition was held

in Waukegan on June 25, 1971,

The Petitioners have lived in

the Waukegan area for

at least eleven and one half years,

at apparently the same

home site,

In 1968 the Petitioners entered into an agree-

ment to purchase the property on which they now wish

to

build,

The total cost of the

lot,

located on Colorado

Avenue,

was

$5,000, but the down payment was

only

$500.

2— 211

---

The Petitioners paid for the property and received

a

warranty deed from the sellers dated February

5,

1969,

Petitioners~ Exhibit A,

At the

time of purchase of

the property by the Petitioners,

the property was not

located in any city, but by ordinance on September

2,

1970, the property was annexed to Waukegan,

At the

time of the annexation there was no sewer line running

by the property, but one existed about 375 feet away.

The Petitioners went to the intervening land owners

and asked them if they would be willing to share

in

the cost of having the sewer extended, but they said no.

The Petitioners then sought the services of an engineer

who could design the extension of the sewer.

In

September,

1970, they hired Avedis Soghigian who did just

that.

In addition, the Petitioners made an agreement

with the City of Waukegan whereby the City agreed to

pay for one half of the cost of the sewer extension.

The engineer prepared the plans and specifications and

charged a total cost of

$625,

of

which the Petitioners

paid half in December, 1970.

The plans

and specs were

submitted in December,l970,

so

that

a permit to con-

struct the sewer could be received.

He was led to

believe that he would receive approval from the City

and other governmental

agencies.

On February

2,

1971,

he received

a copy of

a letter directed to the District

from the Agency

in which the Agency advised the District

that the permit for the extension of the Colorado Avenue

sewer was denied.

Subsequent

to receiving

a copy of

this letter,

the Petitioners investigated

the possibility

of installing

a septic field,

It was determined that

a

septic field could be installed, but its installation

would require

a seepage field of about 1,200 square feet,

Because of the layout of the property, this field would

require the removal of

a small oak forest which presently

exists on the property,

Some of

the trees

in the forest

are over

70 feet high.

The cost of

the septic field would

be about

$2,000,

and the Petitioners had to agree that

when the sewer was made available,

they

would have to tie

into it notwithstanding the fact that they had previously

installed and used the septic

field.

We believe that

the variance should be granted to

the Petitioners

to construct the sewer extension and tie

onto the sewer after

it has been constructed,

Based upon

the previous cases before this Board, we have held that

2

212

---

if the person seeking the variance had done something in

reliance upon the

fact that they could use

the property

for the construction of

a

home

Xor homes)

and tie

onto

the sewer, that person would be considered

to have

a

vested right to attach to and use the District facilities.

We believe that that is the case here,

The Petitioners

received title to this property in early

1969 and since

that time have been going

forward with

plans

to use

the

property.

They have annexed to the City of Waukegan,

they

have

had plans

and specs drawn

for the extension

of the sewer line

and they •have paid money

for those plans

to be completed.

This effort on behalf of the Petitioners

certainly indicates

a complete reliance

on the fact that

they could use their property

to build a private family

dwelling for their own use,

and

they could attach

to the

District~sfacilities.

ORDER

The Petition

for Variance

in this case is hereby

granted,

and the Petitioners

are hereby allowed to build

the extension

to the sewer system as described in the

record,

and further, will be allowed

to connect their

home to that system.

This order is applicable to the

property described in the record in Petitioners~ Exhibit A.

I,

Regina B.

Ryan, Clerk~ofthe Board, certify that

has approved the above Order this

4~

day

of

2

213