Prompted by individuals who have started congregating across from the downtown Arlington Heights Metra station, village officials are now examining potential anti-loitering regulations.
Daily Herald File Photo
Arlington Heights officials are crafting regulations to address an increase in loitering near a downtown condominium building and local businesses.
The internal village hall review of potential rules or ordinances was prompted by complaints from residents of the high-rise building at Northwest Highway and Vail Avenue, where a sidewalk bench and the vicinity has become a popular gathering spot for a group of about five people.
David Weiner, who lives in the 61-unit condo building, said people are there from early morning to late evening in which “noise, shouting, arguing and profanity occurs all day long,” garbage cans and the building’s planting beds are filled with trash, and there is public drinking and urination.
“This is our home, just like yours,” Weiner told the village board this week. “We expect to have a couple units on the market shortly, and I can only imagine the impression this encampment makes on prospective buyers. While we want to be respectful of the plight of the homeless, we continue to look to the village leadership for some relief in this situation.”
Jim Platania of Platania Financial, one of the surrounding businesses, said more individuals have begun to congregate in recent months.
A representative of Platania Financial, 2 W. Northwest Highway in Arlington Heights, expressed concerns over the growing number of individuals who have been congregating outside the business.
Courtesy of Platania Financial
“We’ve witnessed drinking. We’ve heard argument yelling. We’ve seen a significant increase in the trash surrounding our building,” Platania said. “And we do have a concern for the safety of our team members and clients.”
Village Manager Randy Recklaus said he’s been meeting with Village Attorney Hart Passman and Health and Human Services Director Mila Tsagalis, with the goal to provide Mayor Jim Tinaglia and village trustees a range of options.
Recklaus said police have increased patrols in the area and cited individuals when illegal activity is witnessed.
Randy Recklaus
He noted not everyone congregating there is unhoused; a woman who stores a number of belongings on the bench has been talking to the village’s social worker, who has tried to open doors and make connections to social services agencies for her, Recklaus said.
Village trustees in 2023 enacted a series of enforcement actions to crack down on nuisance issues at village-owned parking garages downtown. The measures targeted adults who camped there and kids who hung out there.
Village officials also have worked with Metra to reduce similar issues inside the downtown Arlington Heights and Arlington Park train stations.
“What we see is that the situation moves every time you do that,” Recklaus acknowledged. “That kind of underscores the challenge of this.”
Trustee Bill Manganaro said he’s observed the situation as it has unfolded in recent weeks from being something “very quiet and unobtrusive” to beyond “disruption.”
But he believes it’s a social services and housing attainability issue at the core.
Bill Manganaro
“I want to make sure that not only do we not just move the problem from one bench, from one place to another, but that we don’t take steps that can be perceived as criminalizing homelessness,” Manganaro said. “We can deal with lawlessness. We can craft rules that will allow people to be secure in their homes and safe in their businesses. And I believe we can do that without criminalizing being unhoused.”
Trustee Jim Bertucci said it’s important to help the woman staying on the bench. He’s come to understand she is easy going and not necessarily inviting others there.
Jim Bertucci
However, “we have this issue that Dave and his neighbors are experiencing over at the building,” Bertucci said. “I’m going to say to this board that I believe it’s unacceptable. We need answers. … We’ve got to move it to the top of the list.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
