Village of Lisle Violates State Law

Village of Lisle is in violation of State of Illinois Municipal Code ...

and has been in violation for years.

The Illinois Complied Statutes (also commonly referred to as the Laws of the State of IL) has an entire section devoted to IL Municipal Code - a section of State Law that outlines the authority, responsibility and duties of local government.

Illinois Municipal Code changes in 2002 (13 years ago):

(65 ILCS 5/1-2-3.1) 

    Sec. 1-2-3.1. Building codes. Beginning on the effective date of this amendatory Act of the 92nd General Assembly, any municipality with a population of less than 1,000,000 adopting a new building code or amending an existing building code must, at least 30 days before adopting the code or amendment, provide an identification of the code, by title and edition, or the amendment to the Illinois Building Commission for identification on the Internet. 

    For the purposes of this Section, "building code" means any ordinance, resolution, law, housing or building code, or zoning ordinance that establishes construction related activities applicable to structures in the municipality. 

(Source: P.A. 92-489, eff. 7-1-02.)

Not once since 2002 has the Village of Lisle complied with this law. 

Not once in the past 13 years has the Village of Lisle complied with this State Law. 

Lisle Watchdog spoke with the Illinois Building Commission on March 30, 2015 to verify the violation and failure to report building code adoptions and amendments. The State records show no reporting since the Village of Lisle adoption of the building code "BOCA 1996." BOCA ceased to exist in 2000 and was replaced by the International Building Code (IBC). The IBC Building Code was first issued in 1997 and has be updated and re-issued in 2000, 2003, 2006, 2009, 2012, and 2015. Most municipalities in Illinois have adopted the 2012 or 2009 versions of the building code. 

The Village of Lisle Code states that the current building code enforced in Lisle is IBC 2003. The Village did not provide notification to the Illinois Building Commission 30 days prior to adopting that code back in 2007 (Ordinance 2007-4161). In fact, the Village still has not notified the IL Building Commission eight years later. 

The Village of Lisle Code also states that the code has been updated to include all Ordinances passed through August 2014:  

       "This code was last updated by ordinance 2014-4543 passed August 13, 2014."

Now let's look at Title 4, Chapter 1, Section 8 of the Village of Lisle Code which states:  

4-1-8. Multiple Family Building Regulations: Each dwelling unit contained in a multiple-family residence building shall have a ceiling and floor and walls of a material with a minimum two (2) hour fire rating. All exterior walls of multiple-family residence buildings shall be of solid masonry construction except for "townhouse" and "row house" buildings as defined in this chapter. (Ord. 98-2977, 4-20-1998)

Back in April 2011, at the insistence of Opus Developers, the Village adopted Ordinance 2011-4381 to change the Village Code.  

The Village of Lisle did not provide a 30-day notice to the Illinois Building Commission. The Village of Lisle still has not notified the IL Building Commission of a 2011 building code change ordinance. The 2011 ordinance was not incorporated into Title 4, Chapter 1 of the Village of Lisle Building Code, which still states: 

4-1-8. Multiple Family Building Regulations: Each dwelling unit contained in a multiple-family residence building shall have a ceiling and floor and walls of a material with a minimum two (2) hour fire rating. All exterior walls of multiple-family residence buildings shall be of solid masonry construction except for "townhouse" and "row house" buildings as defined in this chapter. (Ord. 98-2977, 4-20-1998)

Ordinance 2011-4381 amended Title 5 of the Village Code, not Title 4:

 "Title 5 of the Village Code of the Village of Lisle is hereby amended...."

Title 5 is the Zoning Code and amendments to Title 5 require legal notice and a public hearing. 

The changes in Ordinance 2011-4381 do not appear in Title 5 of the Village Code as written the approved Ordinance. 

Changes were were made to Title 4, Chapter 5. 
There is, however, no record of Board approval of changes to Title 4, Chapter 5.  

The Village of Lisle has NEVER provided the State required 30-day notice to the IL Building Commission prior to the adoption of a Building Code, the amendment of the building code, nor adoption of an ordinance to modify the building code. 

The Village of Lisle has violated State Law since 2002.