A decision on damages in a lawsuit by the Schillerstrom family against Naperville has been delayed while the city appeals a DuPage County judge’s ruling on a teardown plan proposed by the family.
Circuit Judge Bonnie Wheaton ruled earlier this month that Naperville must record a plat of subdivision filed by the Schillerstroms and move ahead on the family’s redevelopment proposal for a lot near the center of town. Wheaton was to rule on a possible penalty for the city Nov. 10, but put off a decision on damages until May.
Naperville lawyer and DuPage County Board Chairman Robert Schillerstrom filed the suit against the city in August as City Council members were in the process of denying the plans of his brother and sister-in-law to demolish an older house on a lot at Jefferson Avenue and Mill Street and replace it with two residences. The Schillerstroms are seeking $50,000 in penalties for the city’s delay in moving on their plans.
Naperville City Atty. Tom Thanas said the city has filed an appeal with the Illinois Appellate Court in Elgin, challenging Wheaton’s ruling.
The judge has ruled that the last official documents on the Schillerstrom plan changed hands in early June and that the city should have made a decision on the proposal within 60 days under Illinois law.
Naperville officials have said they waited on approving the proposal because no site plan was filed by the Schillerstroms. In making her ruling, Wheaton determined that the City Council actually was looking for blueprints for the residences planned by the Schillerstroms, documents not required for zoning decisions.
Thanas said the city contends in its appeal that the City Council was entitled to the paperwork under city code. The city’s rules allow the panel to seek any documentation it deems necessary to make a decision, legal staffers have said.
If Naperville’s position is correct, Thanas has said, the 60-day decision period that Wheaton cited never actually expired because final documents were not submitted.
Evidence presented on whether Naperville willfully allowed the 60-day window to expire had been expected to determine the level of damages leveled against the city.
City Council members have said that they delayed the Schillerstrom plan because of the family’s failure to submit the disputed site plan and because the development did not meet a July requirement on resubdivisions.
The council had decided to mandate that redivided residential plots must be at least 90 percent of the size of other lots in the surrounding neighborhood. The Schillerstroms have contended that the new requirement was a deliberate attempt to derail their plan.
Wheaton’s earlier ruling moved the Schillerstrom beyond that hurdle, Thanas has said.
