Bass v. City of Joliet

295 N.E.2d 53, 10 Ill. App. 3d 860, 1973 Ill. App. LEXIS 2729
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedMarch 30, 1973
Docket72-317
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 295 N.E.2d 53 (Bass v. City of Joliet) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Court of Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bass v. City of Joliet, 295 N.E.2d 53, 10 Ill. App. 3d 860, 1973 Ill. App. LEXIS 2729 (Ill. Ct. App. 1973).

Opinion

Mr. PRESIDING JUSTICE ALLOY

delivered the opinion of the court:

Defendant, the City of Joliet, here appeals from a decree of the circuit court of Will County, finding the City’s zoning ordinance to be invalid in its application to property owned by plaintiffs, and also restraining defendant from interfering with, the use of the property as a medical clinic. It is contended that plaintiffs were not entitled to judicial relief because they had not exhausted their administrative remedies, and, alternatively, that the decree should be reversed because plaintiffs failed to meet the burden of proof requirements imposed upon one who seeks to overcome the presumptive validity of a zoning ordinance.

The property in question consists of 12 vacant, platted lots, each having dimensions of approximately 44 X 140 feet and in total consisting of about 1.7 acres of land. Generally speaking, they are located in the easternmost part of a block bounded on the south by Glenwood Avenue; on the west by Springfield Avenue; on the north by West Acres Road; and on the east by Madison Street. Glenwood and Springfield are major traffic arteries. The lots are so situated that six of them front on Glen-wood for a total distance of 266 feet, while the other six front on West Acres for the same distance. The east boundary lines of the two most easterly lots run parallel with Madison for a distance of 280.5 feet. Again speaking generally, land in the immediate area to the north of Glenwood has a residential classification of one sort or another, while the land immediately south of Glenwood is zoned R-B, a classification which permits business and professional offices and multiple family residential dwellings.

To the west of plaintiffs’ lots, and within the block in which they are located, the land fronting on West Acres is improved with single family dwellings, while the land fronting on Glenwood, between the lots and Springfield Avenue, is improved with multiple family, town house dwellings. On the northwest corner of the Glenwood-Springfield intersection, a block west of plaintiffs’ lots, there is a medical clinic which accommodates seven doctors, but the remainder of the immediate area to the west and north of the intersection is improved with single family dwellings. West of the intersection along the south side of Glenwood are several businesses, including a gasoline station and shopping center. The area to the west of plaintiffs’ land, across West Acres, and the area to the east, across Madison, are improved with single family dwellings for the most part.

St. Joseph Hospital and its appurtenant power plant and parking facilities are located on the south side of Glenwood directly across from plaintiffs’ lots. The hospital, housed in a nine-story structure, is a full service general hospital wherein various specialized diagnostic and treatment centers are also located, and which has teaching programs for nurses and high school and junior college students. It has 463 beds, admits from 20,000 to 21,000 in-patients a year and sees about 77,000 outpatients annually, 36,000 of which are emergency room patients. On the staff are 160 doctors and 28 dentists. There are 1200 employees, of which 825 are full time. It was estimated that about 2000 persons visit hospital patients in the course of a week. All told, counting doctors, nurses, students, patients, visitors and deliverymen, some 3500 people come to the hospital each day. Under plans which were to be put into operation shortly after this case was tried, a basement and four-story addition is being constructed which will increase patient capacity by 100 beds. This expansion will require a minimum of 200 additional employees, will generate an additional 25 to 30 nursing students and will increase tire number of persons coming to the hospital by approximately 400 to 500 per day. Private and public transportation to the hospital and its parking facilities are oriented to Glenwood, and the entrance to the emergency room is also off Glenwood.

The hospital property is zoned R-B, as is the land located to the south, east and west of plaintiffs’ property. Along the south side of Glenwood, east of Madison, there are three medical clinics in the nearby vicinity, one of which is on the southeast corner of the Glenwood-Madison intersection diagonally across from plaintiffs’ property. Also, east of the hospital is a high school. West of the hospital, along the south side of Glenwood for a distance of half-mile are uses by various businesses and institutions. South and east of the hospital, along Madison, are two nursing homes, two high-rise apartment buildings and a veterinary clinic.

While we do not find the exact date in the record, it appears that plaintiffs’ lots were zoned R-2 in 1958 and that such classification was continued by a revised ordinance enacted in 1968. Under such classification, both before and after the revision of the ordinance, permissible uses are: one family residences; general education or religious schools; churches and parish houses; social and recreational facilities; public parks and playgrounds; public libraries and the public cultural uses; essential public services such as water towers; and farms, private stables, nurseries; truck gardens or greenhouses.

Plaintiffs purchased their lots from an estate in 1966 at a cost of $20,000 and in 1967 sought to have the land rezoned to a classification which would permit its use for multiple family town houses. The application was denied. Several years thereafter, plaintiffs entered into an option to sell the property to a group of orthopedic surgeons, subject to suitable rezoning which would permit its use for a medical clinic. As is frequently the case, the burden of procuring the rezoning was placed upon the optionees. Accordingly, on November 2, 1971, an application was filed in the names of the plaintiffs for rezoning to an R-B (medical complex) classification. After a public hearing on December 2, 1971, the Plan Commission recommended to the city council that the application be denied. The council did not act on the recommendation, but, instead, recommended that the commission be petitioned to reconsider the application under the City’s Planned Unit Development ordinance. This suggestion was followed and such a petition was filed in plaintiffs’ behalf on December 23, 1971. A second public hearing was held on March 2, 1972, at which time the optionees presented their site plan, but the commission again recommended that the application be denied on the ground that plaintiffs’ tract (1.7 acres) lacked the five or more acres necessary to bring the project within the purview of the planned development ordinance. Completing the dilatory circuity of negative action, the council, on April 11, 1971, voted to concur in the recommendation of the Commission. The action of plaintiffs for declaratory and injunctive relief from which this appeal stems soon followed. At the trial it appears that a site plan was introduced in evidence which differed in some respects from the plan submitted to the Commission.

Before considering the other issues raised by the appeal, and the evidence relating thereto, we deem it expedient to first consider the contention of defendant that plaintiffs were not entitled to judicial relief because they failed to exhaust their administrative remedies. (See: Bright v. City of Evanston, 10 Ill.2d 178; Reilly v.

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Bluebook (online)
295 N.E.2d 53, 10 Ill. App. 3d 860, 1973 Ill. App. LEXIS 2729, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bass-v-city-of-joliet-illappct-1973.