Board of Education, Pleasantdale School District No. 107 v. Village of Burr Ridge

793 N.E.2d 856, 341 Ill. App. 3d 1004, 276 Ill. Dec. 97, 2003 Ill. App. LEXIS 830
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedJune 30, 2003
Docket1-02-0363 Rel
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 793 N.E.2d 856 (Board of Education, Pleasantdale School District No. 107 v. Village of Burr Ridge) 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
Board of Education, Pleasantdale School District No. 107 v. Village of Burr Ridge, 793 N.E.2d 856, 341 Ill. App. 3d 1004, 276 Ill. Dec. 97, 2003 Ill. App. LEXIS 830 (Ill. Ct. App. 2003).

Opinion

JUSTICE HALL

delivered the opinion of the court:

On September 28, 1998, defendant-appellant, the Village of Burr Ridge (Village), adopted ordinances numbers 854, 855, and 856, establishing a tax increment financing (TIE) district, along with a redevelopment plan and project, for approximately 85 acres of vacant land (Subject Property) located within the Burr Ridge Corporate Park in Burr Ridge, Illinois. It is undisputed that this tract of land is located in one of the wealthiest communities in Illinois.

On February 16, 1999, plaintiff-appellee, the Pleasantdale School District No. 107 (School District), filed a complaint for injunctive and declaratory relief against the Village. In the complaint, the School District claimed that the Village’s ordinances did not comply with the provisions of the Tax Increment Allocation Redevelopment Act (TIF Act) (65 ILCS 5/11 — 74.4—1 et seq. (West 1994)), because the Village’s legislative findings made in the ordinances that the statutory criteria necessary to establish the Subject Property as a blighted area were met was erroneous and not supported in fact. The School District claimed that if the TIF ordinances were implemented and the attendant redevelopment plan and project allowed to proceed, the School District and other overlying taxing districts would be irreparably harmed by the illegal and improper diversion of tax revenues from their taxing districts. The School District sought an order declaring that the ordinances were void as a matter of law and an injunction preventing the Village from implementing the ordinances and selling bonds or undertaking any obligations or making expenditures pursuant to the ordinances.

On March 15, 2000, the trial court entered an order denying the Village’s motion for summary judgment. Thereafter, on September 17, 2001, the trial court entered an order granting the School District’s motion for summary judgment on the ground that the Subject Property did not contain any of the blighting factors necessary to qualify it for TIF designation under the TIF Act. The trial court subsequently denied the Village’s motion for rehearing to allow introduction of alleged new facts. The Village now appeals from the trial court’s entry of summary judgment in favor of the School District and from denial of its motion for rehearing.

On appeal, the Village contends that: (1) the trial court erred in finding that the Subject Property did not contain any of the blighting factors necessary to qualify it for TIF designation under the TIF Act; (2) the trial court’s “but-for” finding was in error; (3) in ruling on the School District’s motion for summary judgment, the trial court erred by considering evidence that after the Village adopted the ordinances establishing the TIF district, two new developments were commenced in the proposed TIF district without the aid of TIF financing; and (4) the trial court erred by denying the Village’s motion for rehearing to introduce newly discovered evidence. For the reasons that follow, we affirm.

FACTUAL BACKGROUND

The relevant facts are not in dispute. The Subject Property consists of approximately 85 acres of vacant land located immediately south of Interstate 55 and east of the County Line Road interchange, which divides Cook and Du Page Counties. The Village of Burr Ridge lies in both counties, but the Subject Property lies solely in Cook County. There is no dispute that establishing the Subject Property as a TIF district would enable the Village to more rapidly develop the Subject Property by allowing the Village to provide various financial incentives to selected developers to offset the higher Cook County commercial real estate taxes.

Prior to the present litigation, the Village had been advised that the Subject Property did not qualify as a TIF district. Steven Strieker, the Village administrator, sent a memo dated December 8, 1995, to the Village president and board, stating that he had spoken with Phil McKenna from the consulting firm of Kane, McKenna & Associates in order to “once again discuss the possibility of implementing a T.I.F. District in the Burr Ridge Corporate Park.” In the memo, Strieker informed the Village that, “[ajfter reviewing the statutes we have determined once and for all that the Village of Burr Ridge would not be eligible to implement a T.I.F. District on the Corporate Park property.”

Approximately two years later, Strieker sent a memo dated February 13, 1998, to the Village’s economic development committee, informing the committee that developer Richard A. Barton sought to develop a Radisson Hotel and Conference Center (Burr Ridge Inn) on the Subject Property. The memo stated that Barton and his attorney had suggested that due to the tax disparities between Cook and Du Page Counties, the Village should look into the possibility of qualifying the Subject Property as a TIF district. The memo went on to remind the committee that, “[o]n at least three occasions over the past 8 years, the Village of Burr Ridge has looked seriously into the possibility of creating a Tax Increment Financing District for the Burr Ridge Corporate Park and, on all three occasions, the consultants hired to look into this issue determined that the Village did not qualify. The last discussion of this issue was in the fall of 1995.”

Thereafter, the economic development committee recommended that the Village consider creating a TIF district for the Subject Property in order to create parity between Cook and Du Page Counties real estate taxes. The committee generated a chart illustrating the inequities of the tax structure between commercial property in Cook County and Du Page County, showing that businesses locating in Cook County pay almost double in taxes what they would pay in Du Page County. On April 13, 1998, the Village accepted Barton’s request and awarded Camiros, Ltd., a contract to prepare a TIF eligibility study and a redevelopment plan and project for the Subject Property.

The Camiros eligibility study was undertaken in April and May 1998, and completed in July 1998. The Camiros study found that pursuant to the TIF Act, growth and development of the Subject Property had been impeded by four blighting factors: diversity of ownership, flooding, obsolete platting, and tax delinquencies. After reviewing the Camiros study, the Village’s legal counsel sent a letter dated July 10, 1998, to the Village president stating, “[i]n our opinion, this is a ‘good’ TIF in that it will encourage desired development which will be in the best interests of the Village and all of the underlying taxing districts. However, at the same time it is our opinion that this is a ‘weak’ TIF in terms of meeting the required statutory criteria. The reason for this opinion is that compliance with each of the statutory criteria identified in the Camiros report appears to be rather marginal.”

On August 3, 1998, a joint review board hearing was convened to determine whether the four blighting factors identified in the Camiros eligibility study were present on the Subject Property. The hearing was attended by representatives from some of the taxing districts that would be affected by the proposed TIF. At the conclusion of the hearing, the board found by a formal vote that the eligibility factors necessary to establish the Subject Property as blighted under the TIF Act were not present.

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793 N.E.2d 856, 341 Ill. App. 3d 1004, 276 Ill. Dec. 97, 2003 Ill. App. LEXIS 830, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/board-of-education-pleasantdale-school-district-no-107-v-village-of-burr-illappct-2003.