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Aurora Beacon-News
September 20, 2002
Complaint filed in Kendall County court alleges that corridor violates due process
By Dave Parro
STAFF WRITER
YORKVILLE ó A landowners' lawsuit filed Thursday in Kendall County court alleges the state violated the Illinois
and U.S. constitutions by recording a corridor protection map for the Prairie Parkway without due process.
The six-count, 13-page complaint asks the 16th Circuit Court to declare the map "null and void" and
"mandate that the state must release any interest it may have in terms of freezing plaintiffs' property rights."
A total of 56 landowners in the 36-mile protection strip through Kane, Kendall and Grundy counties joined the lawsuit.
Marvel Davis, at outspoken opponent who owns a 200-acre farm in Big Rock, is named as the lead plaintiff.
"If we would have rolled over and played dead on this, we would have regretted it," Davis said Thursday.
"I think this was a logical next step."
The Illinois Department of Transportation recorded the 400-foot-wide corridor July 31 in order to protect the
land for a future outer-belt highway. The highway would connect Interstate 88 in Kane County with Interstate 80
in Grundy County.
IDOT and state Transportation Secretary Kirk Brown are named in the complaint.
"Defendants have taken plaintiffs' property without due process of law in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment
of the United States Constitution and in violation of the Illinois Due Process Clause," the lawsuit alleges.
Without due process
Both the state and U.S. constitutions dictate the state shall not deprive any person of "life, liberty, or
property, without due process of law."
The lawsuit alleges IDOT violated the law by taking property without showing a public need for the highway, giving
notice to a significant portion of landowners or making "bona fide" offers to property owners for their
land. Highway opponents claim the state's single public hearing did not qualify as due process.
"There's no recourse," said Jan Strasma, spokesman for Citizens Against the Sprawlway, the opposition
group that organized the lawsuit. "There's no appeal process. The state has done it, and it's indefinite."
Tim Dwyer, the St. Charles attorney representing the landowners, said the state has to go through an eminent-domain
process of declaring a need for the land, appraising the property and making an offer before taking land.
"I don't think you can freeze someone's property rights without giving them individual notice and some sort
of declaration that it's necessary for the public good," he said.
Corridor protection
Illinois state law allows IDOT to establish approximate locations and widths for future rights of way to "prevent
costly and conflicting development of land." The recording prevents landowners from making improvements on
the land without first getting permission from IDOT, which can deny the request.
IDOT also has the right to make a first offer on the land and can purchase it at any time.
The lawsuit alleges the state law that allows for corridor protection is "an invalid exercise of police
power" and an illegal taking of land because it freezes or depresses property value for an undetermined period
of time without an offer of compensation.
The last count of the lawsuit alleges due process was violated because IDOT altered its original route, unveiled
at a public hearing in December, and did not hold another hearing for new property owners within the revised corridor.
A total of 61 parcels in the current corridor were not on the original map.
IDOT's approved "central corridor" starts near Kaneville in the north, runs south between Yorkville
and Plano, and then heads southeast before ending at Minooka.
Expected to be sued
Dick Adorjan, IDOT's Springfield spokesman, said the state could not comment on the merit of the lawsuit, but "we
believe we have fulfilled the provisions of the law." IDOT has 28 days to respond in court.
"We're certainly not surprised we're being sued," Adorjan said. "This is a major infrastructure
project. Every time we have a major infrastructure project, we get sued."
Dwyer said in August the lawsuit would be filed in federal court, but he since has changed his strategy because
the complaint pertains to state as well as federal law.
Strasma said the lawsuit won't necessary defeat the Prairie Parkway, but he thinks his group has a strong case
in challenging the process by which the state recorded the corridor.
"Clearly, our organization is opposed to the beltway. period," Strasma said. "This case will not
stop the beltway, but it will right a wrong that the state places on property owners."