THE JOURNAL & TOPICS NEWSPAPERS | WEDNESDAY, MAY 10, 2006
Lawsuit Petition Tossed Out
By DWIGHT ESAU
Journal Reporter
Charles Baldacchino's second lawsuit against the City of Park Ridge was shot down by a judge last week, before it was even launched.
At a petition hearing in Cook County Circuit Court on May 4, Judge Stuart E. Palmer denied Baldacchino's petition to file a taxpayer's lawsuit attacking the city's recent guarantee of part of a loan by LaSalle Bank to PRC Partners for Uptown redevelopment.
Baldacchino claimed in the lawsuit that the guarantee was illegal and unconstitutional because it was a disbursement of public funds to a private party.
Judge Palmer disagreed, however. He reportedly found that the city of Park Ridge was not a state office as contemplated by the statute that permits taxpayer lawsuits. He also found that the city's guarantee of a portion of the developer's construction loan for phase III of the Uptown redevelopment project was not a disbursement of public funds as contemplated by the same statute.
He gave Baldacchino no opportunity to amend the complaint, but declared it was a final and appealable order.
Everette Hill, city attorney, said that Baldacchino's attorneys indicated that they would appeal the ruling.
Meanwhile, Baldacchino's appeal of an earlier dismissal of his first lawsuit complaining about the city's redevelopment agreement with PRC Partners is still pending at the appellate court level, but likely won't be ruled on until this fall, Hill said.
"We are pleased with the judge's ruling that thwarts Mr. Baldacchino's latest attempt to delay and derail the Uptown redevelopment," said Mayor Howard Frimark. "We look forward to closing on the sale of the (phase III) property on June 1."
Construction on five commercial-residential buildings on that property, which was formerly occupied by the city's old water reservoir, is scheduled to begin shortly after that, officials have said.
Baldacchino has persistently complained for months that the city violated state laws and its own zoning code in the redevelopment agreement, and violated state law in guaranteeing part of the loan, a move which was requested by LaSalle Bank after the initial lawsuit was filed. Judges, however, have equally persistently dismissed his claims on technical legal grounds, without addressing the substantive issues he has raised.
The initial lawsuit delayed Uptown reconstruction by several months. But construction of 24 rowhouses and townhomes in Phase I is more than half completed, and work is well along on a commercial/condo building in Phase II, which is expected to contain a 15,000-square-foot specialty grocery store on the ground floor along Northwest Highway and Meacham Avenue.