People ex rel. Northfield Park District v. Glenview Park District

582 N.E.2d 1272, 222 Ill. App. 3d 35
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedNovember 7, 1991
DocketNo. 1—90—0195
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 582 N.E.2d 1272 (People ex rel. Northfield Park District v. Glenview Park District) 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
People ex rel. Northfield Park District v. Glenview Park District, 582 N.E.2d 1272, 222 Ill. App. 3d 35 (Ill. Ct. App. 1991).

Opinion

JUSTICE LINN

delivered the opinion of the court:

Northfield Park- District sought to file a complaint in quo warranto challenging the right of Glenview Park District and North-brook Park District to exercise jurisdiction over approximately 900 acres of territory that, according to Northfield, was annexed to the other park districts in violation of State law. Thirteen years before the suit was filed, the land in question had been disconnected from the Northfield Park District and subsequently annexed to the park districts of Glenview and Northbrook, pursuant to an intergovernmental land use and boundary agreement. Northfield Park District was a party to the agreement and had participated in its negotiation.

The trial court reviewed the materials presented in support of and in opposition to the petition for leave to file the complaint and held that Northfield’s complaint was barred by the doctrines of estoppel, laches, and the statute of limitations.

On appeal, Northfield Park District contends as follows: (1) statutes of limitation, laches, and estoppel do not apply to a park district enforcing public rights; (2) where, as here, the disconnection of territory from one local government unit and annexation to others was not done in conformance with the relevant statute, the local governments’ acts are without jurisdiction and the intergovernmental agreement is void ab initio, (3) the trial court’s application of the doctrines of estoppel and laches was against the manifest weight of the evidence; and (4) the trial court erred in permitting the filing of amicus curiae briefs because there is no statutory authority for filing them in the trial court and they are irrelevant and prejudicial to Northfield Park District.

We affirm.

Background

On July 1, 1975, thirteen north suburban governmental units and another entity, the Northeastern Illinois Planning Commission (NIPC) entered into an intergovernmental land use and boundary agreement, relying on authority found in article VII, section 10, of the Illinois Constitution of 1970 (Ill. Const. 1970, art. VII, §10) and in the Intergovernmental Cooperation Act (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1975, ch. 127, par. 741 et seq.). Section 10 of article VII of the Illinois Constitution permits local governmental units, whether or not they are home-rule units, to contract among themselves to “obtain or share services and to exercise, combine, or transfer any power or function, in any manner not prohibited by law or by ordinance.” Ill. Const. 1970, art. VII, §10.

Since 1972, the group had worked to form a joint planning commission, which culminated in the arrangements collectively called the “Techny Agreement.” “Techny” is the name of the territory in Cook County that was the subject of the disconnection and annexations in the pending case. Techny is a parcel of land, approximately 1,200 acres, that is located at or near the intersection of Willow and Waukegan Roads in Cook County. At the time, Techny was primarily owned by religious orders.

The participants in the planning that resulted in the Techny Agreement were the home rule municipalities of Glenview and North-brook; the Village of Northfield; the park districts of Glenview, North-brook, and Northfield; four elementary school districts and two high schools, and the township of Northfield.1

In this appeal, Northfield Park District challenges the Techny land use and boundary agreement to which it was a party, primarily on the grounds that the agreement violated section 3 — 6 of the Park District Code, which requires that “[a] written petition, signed by the majority of the owners of record of land and the owners of record of more than one-half of the area of land in the territory described in the petition, shall be filed with the secretary of the governing board of the park district, requesting that the specified territory be disconnected from the park district.” Ill. Rev. Stat. 1989, ch. 105, par. 3 — 6.

Pursuant to the Techny Agreement, the Northfield board passed two ordinances in March 1976. One disconnected 541 acres (subsequently annexed by Northbrook) and the other disconnected 282 acres of property (subsequently annexed by Glenview).

The pending controversy arose in 1988, when the current board of Northfield reviewed the 1976 disconnection ordinances and determined, with assistance of counsel, that the disconnection ordinances were invalid because no landowner petitions had been filed, as required by the Park District Code. Following a fruitless meeting between representatives of Northfield, Glenview, and Northbrook, Northfield requested the Attorney General of Illinois and the State’s Attorney to file a complaint in quo warranto against Glenview and Northbrook. Both offices declined, however, stating that the issues involved a purely local dispute and that the parties would be adequately represented by their own counsel. In May 1989, Northfield filed its petitions for leave to file quo warranto complaints against Glenview and Northbrook. The two cases were consolidated.

Northfield alleged that the 1976 disconnection ordinances were invalid because they did not comply with the “jurisdictional” petition requirement of the Park District Code. This, Northfield claims, invalidates the ordinances. Northfield also challenged the authority of the park districts to enter into the Techny Agreement in the first place. Northfield claimed that because it had not lawfully disconnected its territory, that territory remained within Northfield’s boundaries and could not have been lawfully annexed.

Both Glenview and Northbrook filed responses, including affidavits, to establish their reliance on the Techny Agreement and Northfield’s disconnection of the acreage in question. The Techny territory has been administered as part of the Glenview and Northbrook park districts since 1976, and this has been reflected on public documents such as maps and plans. The land has been included in their service areas and thus as part of the tax base of the communities, significant in budgeting and planning for future land use. While the Northbrook portion of the land has largely remained tax exempt to date, because the residents are priests of the Society of the Divine Word (“Techny Fathers”), the Glenview portion has included improvements constituting a tax base in excess of $6 million of assessed valuation.

Northfield challenged the affidavits filed on behalf of Northbrook and Glenview, asserting that the statements therein were conclusory and contradicted by deposition testimony of other individuals.

At the hearing, the trial court considered the parties’ legal memoranda and supporting factual material. The trial court also provisionally received all amicus briefs filed, over Northfield’s objection. The trial court rejected Northbrook’s and Glenview’s challenge to Northfield’s standing, or requisite private interest, to file a suit in quo warranto. The court held that Northfield did have standing, finding the private and public interests asserted were intertwined. The court went on to hold, however, that the action was barred by estoppel, laches, and the statute of limitations.

Opinion

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
582 N.E.2d 1272, 222 Ill. App. 3d 35, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-ex-rel-northfield-park-district-v-glenview-park-district-illappct-1991.