Does anyone know anything about the neighborhood near there?

I found this house that I am absolutely in LOVE with for sale over there, but I don't know anything about the neighborhood....any offerings?

That area is north of North Avenue (I think) and would attend Queen Bee schools (District 15) and Glenbard West.

I do believe that you're correct on both accounts....I would (obviously) prefer to be closer to downtown GE than Glendale Heights, but this house is amazing....wish I could move it closer, lol.

FWIW: Queen Bee is District 16 (Marquardt is 15), but that was REALLY close!

I know the area quite well. What do you need to know? My friends have a home on Bernice. I wonder if they are selling??

Bernice Avenue is in unincorporated DuPage County. There is good news. And bad, considering the location.

Good news? No municipal property taxes on your annual love letter from Gwen Henry, CPA - Treasurer of the County of DuPage. This could save you as much as $900-$1,000 per year in property taxes.

Bad news? Well water and septic fields. No municipal water or sewer service.

Also, no sidewalks, police protection comes from DuPage County sheriff's police and very minimal road work. Roads - including snow-plowing - are all handled by the Township Road Department.

Oh, and something that some might consider "good news" [not me] is that there are minimal [to non-existent] building codes.

Any old Russian immigrant family can put in their own septic tank and foul the entire neighborhood.

[Actually happened]

It is a paradise of de-regulated "home improvements" that have never seen any manner of inspection.

Wow, thanks BTN! All things that I probably wouldn't have thought of....

Lupe: I don't know if your friends are selling....do they have amazing dark-reddish hardwood floors??

Honestly, I'm more or less inquiring about the neighbors and whatnot....is it a friendly area? Are there neighborhood gatherings? I'm a big fan of community and I think it's important when raising children, so I want to move to an area that is a relatively tight-knit (not nosy and overbearing) community.

quote:

Roads - including snow-plowing - are all handled by the Township Road Department.

If handled by Milton Township, I have to say they do a great job of snow removal. They are dispatched off of Main street just to the North of Five Corners.

And no sidewalks means one less area to shovel.

Pretty sure Bernice Avenue is in Bloomingdale Township but don't hold me to that.

This is just my opinion but I would NEVER live in an unincorporated area. Water and sewer service alone is the reason.

Despite all of the monkey business going on over at the DuPage WaterWorld Commission, the water supplied is some of the best in the world.

In unincorporated areas, with each property having its own well, the water is pretty much undrinkable.

Say hello to Hinckley & Schmidt.

And the whole idea of having an underground tank full of, uh, "effluent"?

Disgusting.

Sorry.

Also, find out what library system, if any, you can use - same with park district, etc., - and when annexation, to what town, may be anticipated. When I was shopping, I specifically asked my realtor not to show me anything in an unincorporated area - for me, the 'savings' didn't really add up - especially the lack of code enforcement and I definitely wanted municipal water and sewer, and Lake Michigan water.

That said, unincorporated can be nice for people who know what they're getting into, and are happy with it.

I saw the house - it's new consturction I believe, because it use to be a lot. I'll PM you when I get a chance to give you my lo-down of what I know.

Actually building codes pretty much follow universal (BOCA) codes in urban areas.

Unincorporated areas have a stricter FAR (floor area ratio) than Glen Ellyn and many other municipalities, so it takes a larger lot to build a large house on.

Well and septic is found in both incorporated areas and unincorporated areas (as is sewer and water) and is handled countywide by the health department.

Well water used to require treatment with iron filters and water softeners but has improved in many areas as the shallow aquifer rebounds due to the switch to Lake MI water in the 90's.

OK, what is the code enforcement mechanism in unincorporated areas? In incorporated areas, the mechanism is a building permit to begin the work and inspection for code compliance to end the work.

Based upon what I have observed in unincorporated areas, every single property just "does its own thing". Some are garish and farm-like while others are quite tastefully done. Very much a mixed-bag.

I know a number of people who live in that unincorporated area north of North - known as Glen Ellyn Countryside - and they won't drink their own well water. They sure do have water softners and other water purification equipment but that's just for laundry, toilets and bathing.

Drinking? Bottled water.

In Illinois unincorporated building permits and zoning regulations are handled by the County. Unincorporated areas of Dupage are somewhere near 3X the population of Glen Ellyn. The process works the same as incorporated areas except you have to drive to Wheaton to get permits. The difference is many unincorporated area are within the planning jurisdiction of municipalities so for the last 30 years or so the County works with the municipality to require subdividers to provide public amenities like sidewalks and sewer and water to the municipality's standards in anticipation of future annexation- many unincorporated areas south of FDR were built like that.

In this day and age if you "do your own thing" (build without permits) you're in for a rude surprise when you sell or get caught. I've seen judges order the removal or repair of such non-conforming structures in both incorporated and unincorporated areas whether you built it or not. Most building dept. inspectors including the County's check past permit records on a property as part of a new permit application.

Be thankful you don't live in Kane County- they will be forever reliant on well water or treated Fox river water.

Most unincorporated areas fight hard against annexation, don't they? My observations of the whole thing is that they will only annex if they HAVE to, like the health department condemns their septic field or something.

What level of county building permit compliance by unincorporated homeowners do you think exists in 2009?

Don't know, don't care. Do all of the hundreds of municipalities in the Chicago metro area do a good job. Probably not. Should the GE inspectors have picked up the code violations in the GE library. Who knows. My point is just about every jurisdiction in Cook and the collar counties issues permits, inspects, and issues occupancies to uniform building codes with a few additions (like residential sprinklers, etc,). It is getting so uniform that in some urban areas of the Country municipalities are just paying Counties to do it all- why support umpteen separate building departments in a County all doing basically the same thing? Munis save a chunk of tax money and headache and just focus on the unique parts of their codes (if any), builders save time and effort.

uniform code

Huh, BOCA merged into ICC.

quote:

Originally posted by Biostitute:
Should the GE inspectors have picked up the code violations in the GE library. Who knows.

What violations? Can you be specific?

BTN: the water issue is easily solved with a filtration system....there are some great and relatively inexpensive ones out there. Or....Dollar Tree sells some good bottled water

Well water isn't so bad if you've ever grown up (or spent some time) living around it. For the longest time, I liked it better than treated water....when it didn't have the rotten egg smell, that is....not to mention that more and more well-serviced areas are being transferred over to sewer systems. It's not as bad as one might initially think.

Thanks Darl! More great ideas I wouldn't have even considered....

Lupe: You're awesome....thank you!!!!

BTN (again): "Based upon what I have observed in unincorporated areas, every single property just "does its own thing". Some are garish and farm-like while others are quite tastefully done. Very much a mixed-bag." alot of them do things on their own because of the lack of enforcement, that I've seen firsthand. However, that doesn't mean that it's all bad work. I've seen some very nice home additions and such built without permits (not the wisest option if you ever intend to sell) in unincorporated areas.

Bio: I lived in that well-water community (Valley View) in unincorporated St. Charles. The water sucked and smelled funny, but it served its purpose. It was worth it to be just up the street from the river and only paying $400/month. Plus, those areas generally seem to be a bit more community oriented than their incorporated counterparts.

I also forgot to mention another positive aspect to unincorporated living. GE is highly unique in its buildings' architecture, MANY other towns are all pre-fab or 2 or 3 different floor plans throughout the entire town. One advantage to being in an unincorporated area is that there's more of an option to break out of that. Each house can be unique and different. Not to mention the lack of association fees.

Yes, many improvements done in unincorporated areas are fine and would have no problem passing the most stringent code inspection.

Others are not. Like I wrote, it is a mixed-bag. It is kind of like the "honor system".