A February court ruling in favor of the group No Cedar Lake Annex that seeks to end annexation by Cedar Lake of 232 parcels in unincorporated Lake County is being appealed.
Lake Superior Court Judge Calvin D. Hawkins in February ruled the town was not able to prove development of the proposed annexed land would occur in a reasonable amount of time.
The town is seeking to annex 2,795 acres that extend south from the town border along U.S. 41 to approximately 173rd Street, east to the CSX railroad tracks and west to Magoun Street at about 153rd Avenue, to capture future development along the U.S. 41 corridor. The annexation would capture both sides of U.S. 41, which is mostly agricultural with some residential subdivisions.
Randy Niemeyer, Cedar Lake Town Council president, said the town has authorized its attorney to file an appeal of Hawkins’ ruling and is waiting to learn when the court of appeals will review the evidence submitted and determine if it will hear the case.
“Obviously, we disagree with the ruling, but we accept it,” Niemeyer said.
In his ruling, Hawkins said the town did not present evidence that development along U.S. 41 based on proposed projects such as the Illiana toll road, Great Lakes Basin Transportation freight railroad line or the airport in Peotone, Ill., would occur in the reasonable future because the projects from which development is expected to occur are themselves speculative.
Bert Bell, a board member with No Cedar Lake Annex, said the group was pleased by the ruling but expected the town would appeal.
“From our position, it is a little bit of an act of futility by the town (to appeal). We don’t understand why the town would waste the money to do it,” Bell said.
Hawkins’ ruling, he said, was “overwhelmingly in our favor.” The burden of proof is on the town to prove they need the annexation area for development, he said.
“We were able to demonstrate at the trial that several tracts of farmland owned by developers were sold back to farmers. The actual transactions tend to show development going in the opposite direction,” Bell said.
Carrie Napoleon is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
