When plans surfaced recently for a massive high-rise building in downtown Arlington Heights, a group of local residents organized almost immediately to oppose the project.
They turned to an obscure section of the village’s municipal code to make their case, arguing that they have a right to ask voters in a referendum whether the high-rise should be built.
But now the citizens, calling themselves the Shadow Project, are accusing the village of failing to live up to the spirit of the law. They say Arlington Heights officials are dragging their feet by not acting quickly enough for the issue to be placed on the fall ballot.
Village Board members suggest that organizers may have filed their petitions too late to have the issue placed before voters in November.
“But these people on the board have known about the ordinance and our petitions for well over two months,” said Laura Lambert, a leader of the Shadow Project. “To tell us that nobody was consulted about what would happen if we achieved our petition drive is ludicrous.”
Lambert said a delay would almost certainly mean the issue won’t find its way onto the ballot until at least April. By then, construction probably would have begun on the high-rise, making the referendum proposal moot.
“They would effectively head us off (because) we cannot get it on the ballot in time,” Lambert said.
The new development is yet another turn in the contentious battle over the massive Joseph Freed & Associates project.
The $65 million project calls for demolishing part of downtown Arlington Heights to make way for a 13-story condominium tower, a movie theater and several restaurants and retail shops.
Freed originally proposed a 15-story building containing 120 condo units priced from $225,000 to $300,000. The size of the structure was later scaled back and the number of units reduced to 100, in the wake of opposition from the Shadow Project.
The number of seats in the proposed movie theater also was reduced, from 1,627 to 1,567. And space dedicated to restaurants was trimmed from 2,600 square feet to 2,200.
With the changes, the Arlington Heights Plan Commission and the Village Board have thrown their support behind the project.
But opponents say the big building would cut off sunlight to many nearby homes.
The Shadow Project also opposes the proposed closure of one block of Davis Street, which runs through the development site. Leaders of the citizens group say that stretch of Davis helps alleviate traffic congestion downtown.
The Shadow Project’s petition calls for placing a referendum question on the November ballot, asking voters if the village should keep Davis open and limit the height of all proposed buildings in Arlington Heights to 90 feet, about 40 feet less than than the Freed project.
Even if voters approved the referendum proposal, the Village Board could ignore the mandate–although doing so would carry considerable political risk.
In July, the Shadow Project sued the village, alleging that trustees broke the law by approving the closure of Davis.
The suit contends that the village failed by one vote to gain the six votes needed to close a street. Village officials say the five-vote majority on the nine-member board was sufficient.
When the issue of the petitions was brought up to the Village Board, trustees asked their lawyer to examine whether the Shadow Project’s proposal complies with the village’s statute.
The ordinance says the Village Board, upon petition by at least 12 percent of registered voters, shall consider enacting a proposal spelled out in a petition.
The ordinance goes on to say that petitions must be filed with the village clerk at least 10 days before a regularly scheduled Village Board meeting when consideration of the matter is sought.
It’s that second part of the local law that’s at the heart of the current dispute. Under the ordinance, the village must act within 90 days on a matter presented in a petition drive. If the Village Board fails to take action, the issue goes on the ballot in the next election.
The Village Board asked Village Atty. Jack Siegel to issue an opinion on the petitions in time for the next Village Board meeting Monday.
But Shadow Project members say that if the Village Board waits 90 days to act on the petitions, the Nov. 4 election will have come and gone.
Village officials responded by saying the Shadow Project could have avoided confusion over its petitions by having filed them 10 days before the Village Board met.
“Some people feel that the board has a plan to stall and try to preclude the matter, but I am not aware of any such plan,” said Village Manager Bill Dixon. “I think the board has not dealt with this section of the village code before and is simply waiting for advice from its attorney.”
Mayor Arlene Mulder said the board does not plan to put off a decision on the questions raised in the petitions. And in all likelihood, she added, the issue will be addressed at Monday’s meeting.
Trustee Virginia Kucera said the board is carefully mapping out its next step, largely because the village already has been sued by the Shadow Project.
But the larger issue is clear, she added: The village needs the Freed development to boost its downtown and foster the growth of businesses in the commercial district.
“I think the board had treated the petitioners as fairly as possible,” Kucera said. “If you want to reduce taxes, or at least not raise them, you need economic development. You need this height, you need a number of people downtown to take advantage of the stores and restaurants.”
