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Stop Work Order Halts Development At Willow & Pfingsten

State Appellate Court Issues Temporary Restraining Order Over 1988 Zoning Change, Tree Removal -- Harm Which ‘Cannot Be Undone’

The village of Glenview posted a stop-work order at a shopping center construction site at Willow and Pfingsten roads in Glenview, Monday, July 27 after a judge issued a preliminary temporary restraining order halting work at the site over a lawsuit over the site’s zoning. (Photo provided)

For the second time in a week, construction on a shopping center development at Willow and Pfingsten roads was ordered shut down, this time by an Illinois appellate court that granted a temporary restraining order in an ongoing lawsuit.

A motion for a temporary restraining order was filed with the appellate court Monday, July 27 and approved that day on an emergency basis by a judge. Thursday, July 30, a three-judge state appellate court panel issued a ruling upholding the July 27 ruling.

The village halted work at the site July 20 after neighbors complained that far more trees than were allowed were cleared from the site, including in buffer areas to the north and west of the site meant to protect homes from light and noise from the new shopping center. The village ordered GW Properties to submit a tree remediation plan and pay a $6,750 fine.

Glenview officials said they could not comment on ongoing litigation. Their emergency motion notes “due to the permits issued by the village, demolition is occurring at the Hart property, including the clearcutting of acres of trees.” 

A lack of trees remain after being cut down Monday at the corner of Willow and Pfingsten roads. (Photo provided)

In their July 30 order, the three-judge panel agreed, saying, “Harm, especially the harm from removing trees, cannot be undone.” Oral arguments on the case will be scheduled in mid-August, the ruling said. The court also said the issue of zoning central to the lawsuit was a “fair question.”

A lawsuit against the village regarding the zoning allowing the GW Properties shopping center at Willow and Pfingsten was filed in Cook County Circuit Court in September 2019 by North Shore Property Law on behalf of neighbors. 

The lawsuit challenges a 1988 zoning change that allowed the former Hart estate, zoned as an “R-1” residential property, to be sold with an automatic option either to remain R-1 or to be sold with “B-1” zoning, which would allow a shopping center on the property. The developer GW Properties, is not named in the lawsuit. 

The lawsuit claims a proper legal notice was not made in all editions of the Chicago Tribune in 1988 when zoning was changed, invalidating the zoning change ordinance.

The circuit court ruled for the village and against the neighbors, several who were listed as the primary complainant in December on grounds a 90-day limit had expired.

“The 1988 Plaintiffs’ challenges to Ordinance 2586 rezoning the Hart Property, brought 31 years after the village approved Ordinance 2586, are simply too late,” the village argued in its motion to dismiss the county case. In March the lawsuit was appealed to the Illinois Appellate Court.

In a response to the July 27 preliminary granting of the temporary restraining order, attorneys for the village argued the court did not have jurisdiction to rule on the matter. In their response, the circuit court ruled, “In all appeals, the reviewing court may, in its discretion, and on such terms as it deems just, enter any judgment and make any order that ought to have been given or made.”

When GW Properties brought project plans before the village board last year, many complained that when they purchased their homes near the Hart property, they were told — and zoning maps showed — the area was zoned residential with no indication it could become a shopping center.  

Rendering of proposed GW Properties development at Willow and Pfingsten roads.

North Shore Property Law attorney Brendan Appel said at the time, in the 1980s, before the Willow Road Corridor Agreement between Glenview and Northbrook was signed, the two communities were competing to annex land into their communities. Appel said Northbrook made an offer to the Hart family to annex their property, and Glenview rushed its process in an attempt to annex the property. 

A lawsuit against the village is being litigated by William Seitz, attorney, and chairman of the 1850 Glenview Road Facts group on behalf of his group, opposing The Drake Group’s purchase from the village and development of mixed-use retail and residential development at the former Bess Hardware site at 1850 Glenview Rd. 

Seitz said trees around the site were marked with an “X” indicating their marking for removal in January 2020, before the village gave the project final approval in March.

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