Man fights city hall

He lives in an 18-square-foot home on a corner lot at 17^th and Carpenter streets. He built the “pod” himself, he says, from watching how-to videos on YouTube, and it features solar panels, battery-powered generators, a foundation of heavyweight tires, air conditioning, insulation, a six-foot bed, a microwave and an internet connection from a cheap satellite service. 

He wants to market the mass production of such do-it-yourself, off-the-grid tiny homes not only for his potential profit, but more because of a “calling from God” to better help the homeless get off the streets, just like he did. He thinks he can design a car that would run for at least 100 miles on “a gallon of water and electricity.” Meanwhile, the city of Springfield is “unjustly harassing me,” he says, because none of the structures on the lot he owns are up to code regarding zoning and other public works requirements. 

Oh, and he was also charged about seven months ago by Chicago police for aggravated assault from the discharge of a firearm that wounded a man, although he says he is confident the charges will be dropped since he was acting in self defense. He drops the occasional song on music streaming sites, thinks of himself as an influencer on social media, and has been accused by some online as being a scam artist.

Welcome to the mysterious world of 31-year-old Colton Lexus. It’s a world of Catch-22s, where many things he says seem to check out, but others don’t. He goes by Colton Lexus, but his driver’s license and other official documents list his name as Chase Hadez. He said he once had his own security company and that he’s started a new company, Exon Corp., that he said “invests in off-grid solar systems and housing for people that need them,” but Illinois Times could find no such company registered anywhere. A LinkedIn page for Colton Lexus, with his picture on it, lists his occupation as “software developer and engineer” but not much else. He posts YouTube videos that regularly document his days, and often hosts live chats with followers, some of which turn contentious from his critics jumping in.

While the past of Lexus remains enigmatic, what is true now is that he is in an ongoing battle with city hall. Lexus is living on the property within his rights, he believes, in the tiny, tiny home on land he owns, which now includes an adjacent 4-by-8-by-8 wooden structure he may soon use as his living space. He has been served with notices by the city’s legal department and Office of Public Works that warn if the structures don’t adhere to code soon, the properties could be demolished. A circuit court case involving the matter is in the early stages of the process.

“State law says homeless people have a right to build an encampment. I did that on my property. Sangamon County allows you to register mobile homes. I’m in the process of doing that for this (4×8) unit right here. It’s under 150 square feet, which means it doesn’t need a permit,” Lexus told Illinois Times. “But even though it doesn’t need a permit, I went down there (to the city’s Office of Building and Zoning) to submit for one. I applied for one, and I paid for it. But they are refusing to issue it and are now saying I can’t step foot into the building anymore. They put this sticker on my new structure, saying it’s in violation. Well, what they did was vandalism to my property,  and I’ll sue them for it. If a sheriff or anyone else were to come here to search or seize my home, I will perform a citizen’s arrest on them.”

If that sounds a little crazy, that’s not the way Lexus comes off in person. In separate visits from Illinois Times recently, Lexus politely gave tours of his property and described in detail how he built it to fully function off the grid – hence, no mortgage or utility bills. What is more American than a man living on his own land in his own hand-built home, free from conformity? 

“I’m trying to do everything I’m supposed to do, but all they do is harass me, and I’m suffering as a result of all this,” said Lexus, who said he was adopted at age 8 and grew up primarily in Limestone, Michigan. “I told them either way, I’m going to keep building on it, because I have that right. They’re trying to charge me $750 a day for every day this is here, which is unjustified.”

Sangamon County records show that Lexus, under his legal name of Hadez, paid $3,495 on May 11 to Los Angeles-based Home Equity Options LLC for the lot at 1705 E. Carpenter St. Because he calls himself homeless, Lexus says the Illinois Bill of Rights for the Homeless Act, passed in 2013, allows him to live in structures exempt from local zoning ordinances if the structures are 150 feet or less.

That is not true, says Mitch Flynn, the housing division manager for the Office of Public Works, who has interacted with Lexus several times.

“We informed him what the rules were, which is that you have to have a primary structure on a lot. That pod does not meet any of the international building codes to be classified as any kind of a residential structure,” Flynn said. “You have to meet those minimum codes and their space requirements, and requirements for wind and snow loads – a whole slew of codes you have to meet in order to classify it as something to live in. So, unfortunately, we cannot count that as a primary structure. We informed him before he ever placed it there that it wouldn’t be allowed because of the zoning rules. Next thing we know, he did it anyway.”

Lexus originally built the tiny home in Chicago and lived on a five-foot-wide sidewalk, he said. Why did he decide to live in an 18-square-foot box on a sidewalk in a big city? This is where things about his past get a little fuzzy again, but Lexus said a divorce from his husband and subsequent financial problems from his struggling security business convinced him to build it, based on previous “urgings” from God. When Chicago zoning officials forbade his living on the sidewalk, Lexus said he reluctantly decided to move to a place he thought would be more amenable to living as he does. Somehow, that place became Springfield, but now he has the same hassles with city hall all over again.

“This is the first time this (pod-style, off-grid living) has ever been done. It’s a real home,” Lexus says, noting that he has a mailbox where he’s receiving mail. “I’ve informed the city that, given my homeless status… I’ve established a residency allowable by the (Bill of Rights for the Homeless).”

The home may indeed be his castle, Ward 2 Ald. Shawn Gregory said. But it violates zoning rules, which exist for a reason.

“They are for, among other reasons, sanitary and safety requirements,” Gregory told Illinois Times. “I understand the notion of wanting to live off the grid. But he probably should have done that somewhere deep in the woods. This is a city lot subject to zoning laws.”

And the particular lot Lexus has chosen is in Ward 2, which currently has a moratorium on tiny house developments. Gregory asked for one after the Be Neighbors nonprofit came to the Springfield City Council in September 2024 to request funding for an 18-unit development on Stanton Street that was opposed by many of the nearby residents.

Lexus might have a ray of hope if a judge takes a broader interpretation of Gov. JB Pritzker’s proposed BUILD Act, which would increase affordable housing units and make it easier to bypass local zoning laws, but that is a long way from becoming law.  And, realistically, Lexus’ hopes of winning such a case are probably as tiny as his home, says attorney Tom Pavlik of Delano Law Offices in Springfield.

“The city can’t pick and choose what rules it likes or dislikes or when to enforce or not enforce a rule – as that would lead to all sorts of legal challenges.  It’s not personal – it’s just the equal application of existing law,” Pavlik said. “The reality is that the law rarely catches up to current trends, often for good reason.”

Meanwhile, Lexus says he is ready to fight his case in court. He has submitted several Freedom of Information Act requests to the city for any internal discussions of his situation and promises lawsuits of his own if the city attempts eviction or demolition. 

The living seems hard at the moment, as Lexus doesn’t have a car and gets around on his mountain bikes. He heats food on a butane stove, showers at a local gym, and has a covered outhouse where, he says, he burns the waste responsibly. He has posted videos on his YouTube page asking for any financial assistance his subscribers can provide, as he doesn’t have a job at the moment. He has had food assistance from the state, he said, along with insurance from the Affordable Care Act. But if he suddenly came into a lot of money, he says, he would continue to live off the grid.

“I love living truly on my own, self-sufficiently. It has had a huge learning curve, obviously, but I feel like it’s been a blessing,” Lexus said. “I have no mortgage, no debt. I’ve had no problems with my neighbors, and they help out a lot. I think this is the way human beings really were meant to live. I want to help others do the same thing.”  

This article appears in June 25-July 1, 2026.