A Will County judge has ruled that a group of Homer Township residents had met the necessary criteria to take their hopes of incorporating into a new village to voters in April.
Despite vigorous legal objections from developer Robert Gallagher, Judge Herman Haase ruled that Homer Township voters should decide whether to create a village called Homer Glen.
Haase’s ruling authorizes Will County Clerk Jan Gould to put the question on the April 3 ballot. However, Gallagher, who owns hundreds of acres in Homer Township, may attempt to appeal the decision.
His attorney, Howard Priess, would not say whether Gallagher would immediately appeal to the Illinois Appellate Court in Ottawa. But Priess did take Haase up on his offer to keep exhibits in the case in the court’s hands so that they quickly could be turned over to the Appellate Court.
Objections from the developers have limited the size of the proposed village.
Gallagher’s planned Goodings Grove development, which includes 500,000 square feet of commercial space and a Meijer store, was excluded from the new village in a deal late last month.
In his attempt to stop incorporation from making the ballot, Gallagher contended that the petitioners did not follow correct procedures.
He alleged that guidelines for publishing notice of the incorporation effort were botched, that the petitioners failed to establish whether the proposed village would include any areas already belonging to another municipality, or that the village would have a sufficient population.
He also contended that as the owner of more than 60 acres, he could not be forced to be part of the new village.
Haase disagreed with the objections and ruled the petitioners had met the criteria to put the issue on the ballot. He sent his order to Gould, whose office is busy preparing for the April election.
Haase denied Gallagher’s immediate request to appeal the decision. Appeals are appropriate only at the end of a case, he said, and his ruling would not be final until after the election.
However, he acknowledged that Gallagher could bypass his court and directly ask the Appellate Court for a hearing.
The possibility of an appeal before the election gave Gould an uneasy feeling. Putting the question on the ballot in the area of the proposed village is a big administrative job, she said.
Gould oversees all balloting in the county, and her office already has begun the task of outlining the proposed village to determine which voters would get ballots with the Homer Glen question.
And time is of the essence, she said. Voters may begin applying for absentee ballots on Feb. 22, Gould said, and her office needs to have the ballots ready by then.
“There’s a lot of work to be done over the next few weeks,” she said. If the final decision on whether to include the Homer Glen question is not made within the next two weeks, “it would create a lot of confusion.”
Homer Township officials leading the charge for incorporation looked more relieved than elated after Haase ruled in their favor. But Gallagher’s objection is clearly taking its toll. The hearing on the matter was spread over three days.
