Chicago Tribune
January 9, 2003

Suit over land marked for beltway dismissed

By Wiliam Presecky
Tribune staff reporter

A lawsuit by several dozen land owners challenging their properties' inclusion in the state's plans to safeguard a route for a far western beltway was dismissed Wednesday.

Ruling in favor of the Illinois Department of Transportation, Kendall County Judge Leonard Wojtecki said the approximately 50 property owners failed to show that their land was taken by the state.

"The only factual allegation concerning this is the mere recording of a map of land reservation by the state," Wojtecki wrote in dismissing the complaint filed last September.

The state has marked for protection from future development a 36-mile-long by approximately 400-foot-wide corridor running south from Interstate Highway 88 in Kane County to Interstate Highway 80 in Grundy County.Most of the land involved is farmland and is held by about 100 landowners.

The property owners complained that the state's land reservation plan was unconstitutional on grounds that it denies their right "to construct, develop or rehabilitate anything on the property for an unknown, arbitrary time period wholly within the discretion of [IDOT]."

Under the state's corridor protection statute, property owners within a designated area must report any major changes planned for the use of their land, at which time the state can exercise an option to buy it.

Describing the judge's decision as a technical setback, attorney Timothy Dwyer of St. Charles, who represents the landowners, declined to comment on any legal response pending a meeting with his clients next week.

Wojtecki gave the group a month to amend and resubmit its complaint.

"I don't see this as a big problem," said Dwyer. "I anticipate that we would file an amended complaint and proceed on the issues."IDOT attorney Richard Christopher said Wojtecki's decision to dismiss the lawsuit underscores the state's contention that no property rights were abridged when the state recorded a corridor protection map for the land swath in Kane, Kendall and Grundy Counties.

"What the judge said was they did not allege sufficient facts to demonstrate that we had taken anybody's property without paying for it," said Christopher. "There's nothing that these people can allege that would constitute a [property] taking."