DeKalb Daily Chronicle
June 3, 2006
By Matt Adrian - Chronicle Springfield Bureau
SPRINGFIELD - The Illinois Supreme Court rejected landowner claims
today that a proposed highway gives the state transportation officials
too much power to grab land.
The high court upheld a state law requiring more than 40 property
owners along a 36-mile stretch of land near the proposed Prairie
Parkway to notify the Illinois Department of Transportation about any
changes they make to their property.
The parkway would connect Interstate 88 and Interstate 80 in Kane, Kendall and Grundy counties.
Property owners fear that the notification will trigger eminent domain
proceedings and they could lose their homes over minor improvements
like building a sunroom.
During a March hearing, Timothy Dwyer, lawyer for the landowners,
insinuated that the rules allowed IDOT to suppress property values.
This argument was rejected by the court.
“This is simply the unavoidable consequence of the public
announcement that a highway will be built,” wrote Justice Mary
Ann McMorrow. “There is no indication that (the law) was enacted
as a means to purposefully and improperly drive down the value of
landowners' properties.”
At the same March hearing, Carl Elitz, an assistant attorney general,
argued that the law only spells out the procedure for the Department of
Transportation to begin negotiations to buy property. The agency can
choose to start eminent domain procedures or do nothing at all, he said.
“At it's longest (the process) is half of a year,” he said.
“If nothing happens they are free to do whatever they want with
the land.”