In most communities, plans like the one floated by William Kaper Jr. to build 187 new townhouses would be embraced as a boost to the community.
But most communities are not Crystal Lake, which has been trying in recent years to inhibit, rather than encourage, growth.
On Sept. 16, the Crystal Lake City Council put the skids on plans by Kaper, a Barrington Hills attorney, to sell the 37 1/2-acre parcel at Randall and Algonquin Roads to a developer for the town homes.
City officials balked at the project because the developers want it built in three years. The city preferred six or seven years.
Now Kaper has filed a $2 million lawsuit in McHenry County Circuit Court against Crystal Lake, asking a judge to overturn the Sept. 16 decision to reject the project.
At issue in the suit, filed late last month, are provisions of the city’s Growth Management Ordinance. The law was enacted in 1990 as part of a comprehensive program to slow the pace of residential growth and thereby ease the burdens that growth places on schools and city services.
The ordinance provides that construction of residential units in a subdivision be completed over six or seven years.
Exemptions may be granted if the development meets certain criteria such as an advance payment of school or road impact fees or includes innovative architecture.
The Zoning Board of Appeals and the Plan Commission recommended approval of a proposal to build 187 townhouses on the property on the city’s south side over three years.
But the council’s September rejection was made on the grounds that the construction schedule violated the growth ordinance.
According to the suit, Kaper attempted to sell his parcel on several occasions. But on at least two occasions, the suit said, the sale failed to go through because developers said their projects weren’t economically feasible if the construction schedule was required to stretch over seven years.
The suit was sparked by Kaper’s latest plans to sell the property to Hallmark Homes for $1.5 million. Hallmark Homes wanted the town home community to be completed within three years.
“Development of the 187 townhouses . . . over a six-year period is not economically viable because the annual carrying costs of . . . marketing the project would exceed any annual profits that the sale of the townhouses might generate,” the suit said.
Kaper said that the cost of maintaining model homes and of marketing must be recovered sooner than the six or seven years required by the ordinance for a developer to make a profit.
Councilman Thomas Hayden declined to discuss the pending lawsuit but defended the Growth Management Ordinance. He said it doesn’t prevent owners from developing property, it merely gives the city the right to control that development.
“It could be compared to drinking alcohol,” said Hayden. “The city is not taking away your right to drink, but it is taking away your right to get drunk and drive a car.”
In the suit, Kaper alleges that the annexation agreement he signed with the city in 1985 made him subject to ordinances on the books at that time. Because the Growth Management Ordinance was not enacted until 1990, Kaper said it does not apply to his parcel and is being used to “intentionally discriminate.”
The suit also says the limits are not being applied uniformly to all developers.
“The city picks and chooses where it will enforce its ordinances,” said Kaper’s attorney, Jay Geller.
Mayor Robert Wagner said Kaper’s property did not qualify for an exemption.
“We’ve got an ordinance and I took an oath of office to follow the law, which I followed to a `T,’ ” he said.
