Last week, the Appellate Court ruled against the Mobile Home Owner's Association of Illinois, allowing an adult bookstore to operate within 1,000 feet of two school bus stops at the Touhy Manufactured Homes community in Elk Grove Township.

Terry Nelson, president of the non-profit, volunteer-run organization, said this week the decision by the Court left her disappointed and saddened. At the same time, she vows to continue to push for state legislation to give the same zoning protection to owners of manufactured homes as those protecting neighborhoods of single family residences.

"The zoning laws were put into place years ago, and I don't believe they were put in place to take advantage of putting in an adult bookstore across from two school bus stops," Nelson said.

The adult bookstore is located in an unadorned, tidy, one-story brick building, looking very much like the type of office building found in business parks. It caters, however, to an adult clientele seeking sexually explicit material and is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.

"I said in the beginning, at least be closed when these children are going to and from school," Nelson said. "It draws the type of people you don't want around kids."

Nelson said when she solicited letters of support against the bookstore last year, more than a few 15- to 17-year-old males wrote that they were curious about the bookstore.

"They were very honest," she said. "Curiosity kills the cat."

Nelson, who has lived in a manufactured home for the past 28 years, says she will continue her fight to keep adult bookstores away from manufactured home communities through the help of local state legislators.

"State Sen. Wendell Jones (R-Dist. 27) has been very active with our issues and especially with regard to protection for manufactured home owners," she said.

Last year, a bill by Sen. Jones, which drew the support of other senators in the Northwest Suburban area, lost by three votes, she said.

Nelson said because the vote was so close, she will seek the help of Sen. Jones for this legislative session, as well.

"We will be putting in legislation through Sen. Jones for state legislation regarding zoning so adult establishments can't be built across from these residences. Now, there are over 2,000 manufactured home communities in the state. We want to add the manufactured home communities to existing laws that protect single family dwellings. We don't have residential protection," she said.

Nelson said 1,500 families in the Touhy community, which lies in unincorporated Des Plaines, were affected by the court's decision.

She said she will talk with Des Plaines City Attorney David Wiltse on whether it would be practical to continue the fight to the next level of appeal, the Supreme Court, but acknowledges that it may prove too costly.

Up till now, the cost of pushing through the lawsuit to the Appellate Court level was borne, she said, by the City of Des Plaines and School District 59.

"The Association has put money towards publicity, but without them we wouldn't have been able to go through the process," she said. "And, they gave us their moral support."