Harrison-Halsted Com. Group v. Housing & Home Finance A.

• Citation: 310 F.2d 99
• Decision Date: 28 November 1962
• Docket Number: No. 13860.,13860.
• Parties: HARRISON-HALSTED COMMUNITY GROUP, INC., et al., Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. HOUSING AND HOME FINANCE AGENCY et al., Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (7th Circuit)

310 F.2d 99 (1962)

HARRISON-HALSTED COMMUNITY GROUP, INC., et al., Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. HOUSING AND HOME FINANCE AGENCY et al., Defendants-Appellees.

No. 13860.

United States Court of Appeals Seventh Circuit.

November 28, 1962.

Frederic D. Houghteling, Chicago, Ill., George W. Overton, F. Raymond Marks Jr., Donald Page Moore, Chicago, Ill., Overton, Marks, Simons & Moore, Chicago, Ill., of counsel, for appellants.

James J. Costello, Legal Counsel of The University of Illinois, Albert E. Jenner, Jr., Keith F. Bode, Chicago, Ill., Thompson, Raymond, Mayer & Jenner, Chicago, Ill., of counsel, for The Board of Trustees of University of Illinois.

John C. Melaniphy, Corporation Counsel of City of Chicago, and Thomas A. Foran, Sp. Asst. Corporation Counsel, for City of Chicago, Chicago Community Conservation Board and Chicago Plan Commission.

Milton P. Webster, Jr., Asst. Corporation Counsel, Chicago, Ill., for Chicago Land Clearance Commission.

William G. Clark, Atty. Gen., State of Illinois, William C. Wines, and Harold G. Andrews, Asst. Attys. Gen., Chicago, Ill., for Illinois State Housing Board.

James P. O'Brien, U. S. Atty., John Peter Lulinski, Thomas W. James Asst. U. S. Attys., of counsel, Chicago, Ill., for other appellees.

Before DUFFY, SWYGERT and MAJOR, Circuit Judges.

DUFFY, Circuit Judge.

Plaintiffs brought this suit seeking a declaratory judgment and an injunction to prevent defendant Governmental Agencies from proceeding with plans to acquire and clear, under an urban renewal program, an area on the near west side of Chicago, for the use of the University of Illinois. The University desires to use the property as a campus for the University of Illinois — Chicago.

The District Court dismissed, before trial, both the original complaint and the amended complaint. Errors alleged by appellants are the District Court's interpretation of the jurisdictional statutes; its interpretation of the Federal Housing Act; and its interpretation of the allegations of the amended complaint.

All parties to this suit have cooperated in expediting this appeal. By order of this Court, the time for filing briefs was advanced. In spite of the shortened periods, the points at issue were thoroughly covered. Appellants filed a 139 page main brief and a 20 page reply brief. Appellees filed a 75 page brief. The HHFA and the Housing and Finance Administrator also filed a brief. The time for hearing oral argument was likewise advanced so that such argument was held slightly more than four months after the entry of the order of dismissal in the District Court.

This action involves an area of the City of Chicago sometimes called the "Near West Side Neighborhood" which, for the purposes of this case, is divided into four parts. The Harrison-Halsted Tract is a square area of some 55.5 acres in the northeast corner of the Neighborhood. Immediately south of it is the Roosevelt-Blue Island Tract, occupying some 48.7 acres. Along the north edge of the Neighborhood stretches the Congress-Racine Tract, an irregular shaped area one mile in length, averaging 1/10 of a mile in width, and comprising some 59.4 acres. The rest of the Neighborhood is occupied by the Near West Side Conservation Area. This Conservation Area originally extended as far north as the Congress Expressway, but in February 1961, its northern quarter was separated and redesignated as the Congress-Racine Tract.

Plaintiffs herein include Harrison-Halsted Community Group, Inc., an Illinois not-for-profit corporation. Plaintiffs' brief asserts Harrison-Halsted Community Group, Inc. is the designated representative of all of the individual plaintiffs in protecting their interests and particularly in bringing and prosecuting this action.

There are also 282 individual plaintiffs of whom 104 own property in the areas hereinbefore described. Other plaintiffs own businesses, and 144 of the plaintiffs reside within the area. Other individual plaintiffs named do not belong to any of the foregoing categories, but are listed as parties plaintiff because of their alleged reliance upon past promises and representations of certain of the defendants.

The defendants are all governmental agencies involved in the challenged urban renewal projects. Listed are the federal Housing and Home Finance Agency (HHFA), and its administrator, Robert C. Weaver. Also listed is the Chicago Land Clearance Commission which, until recently, was the agency of the City of Chicago charged with carrying on slum clearance projects in that city.¹ Another defendant is the City of Chicago together with two of its agencies, 1) the Chicago Community Conservation Board² and 2) the Chicago Plan Commission.

Still another defendant is the Illinois State Housing Board, a state agency charged with approving all urban renewal projects, both clearance and conservation. The final defendant is the University of Illinois for whose benefit the project areas in question are sought to be acquired.

The Near West Side Neighborhood is one of the oldest residential areas in Chicago. Many families have lived there for more than a generation. Residents and property owners in the area realized that portions thereof had deteriorated and were in need of renewal. A Near West Side Planning Board was formed. This was a voluntary civic organization sponsored by Hull House. At least, in part, due to the activities of this Planning Board, the Harrison-Halsted Tract was designated as a slum and blighted area in September 1956. On January 16, 1958, the Land Clearance Commission adopted the Harrison-Halsted Redevelopment Plan which called for the clearance of most of the Tract, and its development as a residential area for moderate income families. The Redevelopment Plan was approved by the City, the State Housing Board and the HHFA. On May 16, 1958, HHFA entered into a loan-and-grant contract with the Land Clearance Commission for the carrying out of the project. By mid-1960, much of the Tract had been cleared.

In May 1956, most of the balance of the Neighborhood, or that part west of the west line of the Harrison-Halsted Tract (with the exception of Jane Addams Homes) was designated as a conservation area to be redeveloped by rehabilitation and spot clearance.

Plaintiffs claim that following the adoption of the Harrison-Halsted Redevelopment Plan, numerous persons including some of the plaintiffs, began acting in reliance thereon. Residents of the Harrison-Halsted Tract and owners of businesses therein, relocated in adjacent areas with the expectation of returning after Harrison-Halsted had been redeveloped. Plaintiffs claim that property owners refrained from raising objections which they might otherwise have done. Also, that a new parish school, replacing one that had been destroyed for being in the path of the South Expressway, was built in the heart of the Harrison-Halsted Tract upon assurance by City and Land Clearance Commission officials that it would fit in with the redevelopment plan for the area. This school was completed in 1959, but if the plans here challenged are executed, this school building will be demolished. Some of the plaintiffs contributed to the building of the school.

For some years, the University of Illinois had been seeking a location for a new campus to replace its present facilities at Navy Pier.³ When asked on oral argument why the University itself did not proceed to acquire land by condemnation, counsel answered that the University was unable financially to meet the expense that would be involved by such a procedure. It is without dispute that the proposed land acquisition is being financed in material measure by the grant of federal subsidy funds under the Federal Housing Act of 1949.

Apparently, some time in 1960, the City began to consider the possibility of using the Harrison-Halsted Tract, by then largely cleared, as a nucleus of a university site. Plaintiffs claim this consideration was kept a high-level secret, that no member of the Near West Side community was consulted, and that public officials concerned continued to reiterate their promises of a residential redevelopment as originally planned.

On February 10, 1961, the Mayor of Chicago announced to the press that he had reached an agreement with the University Trustees on a site for a campus. The so-called railroad terminal site was abandoned. Instead, the campus was to occupy the Harrison-Halsted Tract and two adjacent areas needed to provide the acreage⁴ which the University desired.

Plaintiffs claim the Land Clearance Commission hurriedly surveyed the adjacent Roosevelt-Blue Island and Congress-Racine Tracts. On March 29, 1961, the Land Clearance Commission adopted a series of five resolutions, designating the Roosevelt-Blue Island and Congress-Racine Tracts as slum and blighted areas, and revised its earlier Harrison-Halsted Redevelopment Plan to provide that the entire area (except 3 acres along Morgan Street) should be turned over to the University, and adopting redevelopment plans calling for all of the Roosevelt-Blue Island and about half of the Congress-Racine Tracts to be turned over to the University. The rest of the Congress-Racine Tract and the three acres on Morgan, were designated for University-oriented private housing.

The Land Clearance Commission held no hearings on its resolutions. Following the approval of these resolutions, the Planning and Housing Committee of the Chicago City Council held a hearing on them on April 13, 1961. Objectors were permitted to appear and make statements, but were not permitted to subpoena witnesses, or documents, or cross-examine City and Land Clearance officials.

The Chicago City Council adopted ordinances approving the University site project plans of May 22, 1961. The State Housing Board thereafter announced it would hold hearings of its own on the designations of Roosevelt-Blue Island and Congress-Racine Tracts. The Board agreed, upon demand of plaintiffs herein, to...