In upscale suburbia, blood is thicker -- and apparently more desirable for apartment dwellers -- than water.
Some nervous Northbrook residents suspect that six men and women who are renting a home in the 4000 block of Michelline Lane are living in sin, ahem, breaking city ordinance because they are not related. Now the residents must prove otherwise to the courts this Friday, or get out of town, the Chicago Tribune reports.
"They're not disruptive, as far as being loud," said neighbor Craig Heisner. "It's just the unnerving aspect of having people living in what we believe is a violation of code."
The long-standing ordinance prohibits more than three unrelated people from living together under the same roof, designed to keep families in and heathens out -- or something like that. But the real estate agent involved in the case insists the renters are somehow related by blood or marriage, and finds the probing to be entirely intrusive.
"They are such a quiet family," said Krystyna Kaczor. "They run a business in Northbrook ... They don't disturb anyone."
But apparently the definition of "family" is disturbing.
"What is a family now?" said Thomas Poupard, Northbrook's director of community planning. "I've been a planner for 30 years ... It's not Beaver Cleaver any more."
