Wortham v. Village of Barrington Hills

2022 IL App (1st) 210888, 202 N.E.3d 987, 460 Ill. Dec. 967
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedMarch 17, 2022
Docket1-21-0888
StatusPublished

This text of 2022 IL App (1st) 210888 (Wortham v. Village of Barrington Hills) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Court of Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Wortham v. Village of Barrington Hills, 2022 IL App (1st) 210888, 202 N.E.3d 987, 460 Ill. Dec. 967 (Ill. Ct. App. 2022).

Opinion

2022 IL App (1st) 210888 Opinion filed: March 17, 2022 FIRST DISTRICT FOURTH DIVISION

No. 1-21-0888

CLAY WORTHAM and ANITA WORTHAM, ) Appeal from the ) Circuit Court of Plaintiffs-Appellants, ) Cook County. ) v. ) Nos. 20 CH 06818 ) 21 M 371 THE VILLAGE OF BARRINGTON HILLS, a ) Municipal Corporation, ) Honorable ) Martin C. Kelley, Defendant-Appellee. ) Judge, presiding.

JUSTICE ROCHFORD delivered the judgment of the court, with opinion. Justices Lampkin and Martin concurred in the judgment and opinion.

OPINION

¶1 Plaintiffs, Clay and Anita Wortham, filed complaints for administrative review of two final

decisions of the Village of Barrington Hills (Village), fining them a total of $32,250 for committing

52 separate violations of section 5-5-2 of the Barrington Hills Village Code (Barrington Hills

Village Code § 5-5-2 (amended Dec. 7, 2016)) by repeatedly providing short-term vacation rentals

of their single-family residential home through the website Vrbo.com (Vrbo). The circuit court

consolidated the administrative review actions and affirmed. Plaintiffs appealed to this court. The

primary issue on appeal is whether plaintiffs’ act of renting out their home on Vrbo constituted a

permitted residential use under the applicable provisions of Title 5 of the Barrington Hills Village

Code (hereinafter, Zoning Code) (Barrington Hills Village Code, tit. 5) or an impermissible

business use. For the reasons that follow, we find that plaintiffs’ rentals of their home constituted

an impermissible business use and affirm the circuit court.

¶2 The Zoning Code provides zoning regulations for the Village. Section 5-5-2 permits single-

family detached dwellings in R1 residential zoning districts (R1 districts). Barrington Hills Village

Code § 5-5-2 (amended Dec. 7, 2016). Section 5-2-1 defines a “dwelling” as “[a] building *** No. 1-21-0888

designed or used exclusively for residential occupancy, including single-family dwellings *** but

not including hotels or lodging houses.” 1 Id. § 5-2-1. Section 5-2-1 defines “hotel” as “[a]n

establishment which is open to transient guests, in contradistinction to a boarding house or lodging

house, and is commonly known as a hotel in the community in which it is located and which

provides customary hotel services.” Id. “Lodging house” is not defined in Title 5.

¶3 Section 5-5-2(A) also permits “[h]ome occupations, as accessory only to single-family

detached dwellings” in R1 districts. Id. § 5-5-2(A). Home occupation is defined in section 5-3-

4(D)(2) as:

“any lawful business, profession, occupation or trade conducted from a principal building

or an accessory building in a residential district that:

a. Is conducted for gain or support by a full time occupant of a dwelling unit; and

b. Is incidental and secondary to the principal use of such dwelling unit for

residential occupancy purposes; and

c. Does not change the essential residential character of such dwelling unit or the

surrounding neighborhood.” Barrington Hills Village Code § 5-3-4(D)(2) (amended Oct.

28, 2019).

¶4 Section 5-3-4(D) further states:

“Home Occupation: The intent of this subsection is to provide peace, quiet and domestic

tranquility within all residential neighborhoods within the village and in order to guarantee

to all residents freedom from nuisances, fire hazards, excessive noise, light and traffic, and

1 Hotels, motels, and lodging houses are special uses allowable in the B4 business district pursuant to sections 5-6-4(D) and 5-6-11 of the Zoning Code. Barrington Hills Village Code § 5-6-4(D) (amended Dec. 19, 2017); Barrington Hills Village Code § 5-6-11 (amended Feb. 23, 2004).

-2- No. 1-21-0888

other possible effects of business or commercial uses being conducted in residential

districts. It is further the intent of this subsection to regulate the operation of a home

occupation so that the general public will be unaware of its existence. A home occupation

shall be conducted in a manner which does not give an outward appearance nor manifest

characteristics of a business which would infringe upon the right of neighboring residents

to enjoy the peaceful occupancy of their dwelling units or infringe upon or change the

intent or character of the residential district.” Id. § 5-3-4(D).

¶5 Plaintiffs are the owners of a single family home (the Property) located at 366 Overlook

Road in the Village’s R1 district, and they also own and operate two farms in Kentucky. When

spending time at their farms in Kentucky, plaintiffs list the Property on Vrbo, a vacation rental

online marketplace, for $299 per night. According to their Vrbo listing, occupancy is limited to

eight guests, with a minimum three-night stay. Parties are not permitted. The entire home is listed,

so that the guests have exclusive access to the Property during their stay and do not share the

Property with plaintiffs.

¶6 Prior to March 1, 2020, plaintiffs rented the Property through Vrbo on at least 27 occasions.

¶7 On March 10, 2020, the Village messaged plaintiffs on Vrbo and informed them that

“short-term rental use of your Property for lodging or other commercial purposes is strictly

prohibited” by sections 5-5-2 and 5-2-1 of the Zoning Code, which only permit single-family

detached dwelling use in the R1 district and do not permit hotels or lodging houses. The Village

told plaintiffs to “immediately cease and desist from any use of your Property for commercial

short-term rental purposes.”

¶8 Plaintiffs ignored the cease and desist order and continued to rent the Property through

Vrbo at least 14 more times.

-3- No. 1-21-0888

¶9 On September 15, 2020, the Village sent plaintiffs a cease and desist letter again informing

them that their use of the Property “for short-term rental for lodging or special events” in the R1

district is prohibited under sections 5-5-2 and 5-2-1 of the Zoning Code and that each violation

carries a penalty of $750 per day “for every day such violation has remained existing.”

¶ 10 On September 16, 2020, the Village again messaged plaintiffs through Vrbo informing

them that the short-term rental of the Property violated sections 5-5-2 and 5-2-1 and “must

immediately cease.”

¶ 11 Due to plaintiffs’ refusal to cease the short-term rental of the Property through Vrbo, the

Village served a notice to plaintiffs on September 24, 2020, to appear before a hearing officer for

an administrative adjudication on the alleged Zoning Code violations.

¶ 12 The parties appeared before the Village hearing officer and submitted a joint stipulation of

facts and written arguments. The joint stipulation of facts set forth plaintiffs’ ownership of the

Property in the R1 district, their numerous vacation rentals of the Property through Vrbo, and the

Village’s multiple communications to plaintiff informing them that the rentals were in violation of

the Zoning Code. The joint stipulation also attached a copy of plaintiffs’ listing of the Property on

Vrbo along with 53 customer reviews. One such review indicated that the renters accessed the

Property by means of a keypad on the door with an access code.

¶ 13 In its written argument, the Village asserted that plaintiffs’ repeated short-term vacation

rentals of the Property through Vrbo constituted commercial uses of the Property as a lodging

house for transient renters in violation of sections 5-5-2 and 5-2-1 of the Zoning Code, which allow

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2022 IL App (1st) 210888, 202 N.E.3d 987, 460 Ill. Dec. 967, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wortham-v-village-of-barrington-hills-illappct-2022.