The Problem of the "Western Arm" Annexation
The Problem of the "Western Arm" Annexation
The May 24, 1928 annexation shown on Map "D" must now be discussed. The village map of 1937 drawn by the village engineer Turpin shows the western arm annexation still intact. However, as we shall see, ordinances of 1956, 1961, and 1962 again annex portions of that western arm, specifically land belonging to Carl Schnur and to his descendants. The problem is, nothing to be found in extant village records shows that any of the western arm annexation had subsequently been disannexed, or found to be illegal. Yet something of this sort must have transpired, and further, it would appear that whatever did occur happened before 1946, for we have a zoning map of that year in the Planning Office which shows the Schnur land not part of the village. In fact, a map in the engineer's office dated 1939 shows the same drawing, so it would appear that our missing event transpired between 1957 and 1959. (The village has indicated that they will research the matter further.)
The land in question is shown in Map "F", where the entire western arm is depicted again, but with dashed lines around territory that must have been lost, As stated before, this land was annexed again in 1956, 1961, and 1962. An interesting consequence of the affair is the precise path of the western boundary of present day Skokie. The 1928 acquisition had gone to (the middle of) Lehigh ("Railroad Avenue"). The annexations of 1961 and 62 deal only with Schnur property, and thus go up only to the right-of-way of the Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Paul Railroad. Hence the Skokie boundary today crosses the tracks (according to zoning maps) to the middle of Lehigh in the neighborhood of Mulford. The track area from that point south to Howard remains as an unincorporated acre or so of land in the township.
