Date: Wed, 18 Apr 2001 23:20:02 -0400 From: bobhunt@erols.com Subject: [lpaz-repost] (fwd) Taking their homes By Diana Wallace To: Individual-Sovereignty@egroups.com, lpaz-repost@yahoogroups.com, MDLP-NEWS@onelist.com
On Wed, 18 Apr 2001 18:02:36 -0400, "Alexandra H. Mulkern" <amulkern@Radix.Net> wrote:
Taking their homes By Diana Wallace
Daily Herald Staff Writer Surban Chicago's Information Source
Posted on April 18, 2001
If there's a "softer" way for the government to acquire people's homes against their will, DuPage County Forest Preserve District officials say they'll find it.
But weeks after the county's top elected official announced plans to change the way such acquisitions are handled, the forest district voted Tuesday to condemn the home of a couple in their 60s.
Judy and John Mattioli purchased their home 30 years ago. Since then, they've built an addition and completely remodeled the five-bedroom home and the full acre it sits on outside Itasca.
On Tuesday, the forest commission voted to condemn the property. Officials said it was needed to "square up" the boundaries of the adjacent Songbird Slough preserve.
A tearful Judy Mattioli, 60, called the move unfair.
"I feel sorry for America," she said. "This is just completely wrong."
Mattioli noted that when she and her 65-year-old husband John bought the home about 30 years ago, the forest preserve did not exist.
"We did not abut them. They're abutting us," she said.
Although district officials said they will offer the Mattiolis the right to stay in their home for the rest of their lives, Judy Mattioli said the money offered is a fraction of what the home is worth.
She said the district has offered $235,000 for the home, which was recently renovated and has three bathrooms, a gourmet kitchen and an underground sprinkler system.
The district would not confirm the terms of the offer.
But Commissioner William Maio, chairman of land acquisition, said such "life estates" are excellent deals because they allow families to reap the value of their homes while still living in them.
He also said condemnation was the only tool available to the district in this case because the Mattiolis have refused to negotiate a settlement.
But the condemnation, approved by a 15-7 vote, underscored the growing rift between DuPage County Board Chairman Robert Schillerstrom, also a forest preserve commissioner, and forest preserve President Dewey Pierotti.
Schillerstrom took greater control of the forest preserve district late last year by installing his backers as committee chairmen. Pierotti used to have the power to appoint the committee chairmen, but the commission last December voted to remove that power from him even as it voted to keep him president.
Pierotti blasted the condemnation, calling Schillerstrom and his backers "hypocritical" for touting a softer approach to condemnations while still going after the Mattioli property.
"They say they want a gentler, more reasonable approach and then they do this," Pierotti said. "Now, how are they going to look these people in the eye? ... I think it's really unfair. I can't support this taking."
But Maio, a Schillerstrom ally, suggested Pierotti was merely grandstanding for political gain, noting that Pierotti earlier voted in favor of including the Mattioli property on the district's wish list of potential acquisitions.
Over the past year, the forest district has faced growing criticism for condemning homes on which people live for the sake of expanding or establishing preserves.
Te district has acquired more than a dozen such homes over the past two years, though Maio noted that all of them were settled without having to resort to a judge's ruling on what the property is worth. He insisted that no one has been kicked out of his or her home by the district.
But to improve the public perception about the acquisitions, Maio asked Schillerstrom recently to establish new methods for approaching homeowners.
Among his recommendations was to offer homeowners life estates or rights of first refusal to the district, and to require a two-thirds majority vote by the commission to condemn a property on which the owner resides.
"When you take individual homes, there should be greater care in the way you do it," Schillerstrom said. When it comes to how the district notifies residents of its interest in buying their property, "it's certainly been perceived we've been a little harsh," he said.
Home: Couple says money offered wasn't fair
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