Landmarks Ill. v. Rock Island Cnty. Bd.

• Decision Date: 16 July 2020
• Docket Number: Appeal No. 3-19-0159
• Citation: 443 Ill.Dec. 739,162 N.E.3d 373,2020 IL App (3d) 190159
• Parties: LANDMARKS ILLINOIS, National Trust for Historic Preservation, Rock Island Preservation Society, Moline Preservation Society, Broadway Historic District Association, Frederick Shaw, and Diane Oestreich, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. The ROCK ISLAND COUNTY BOARD, and the Rock Island County Public Building Commission, Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: United States Appellate Court of Illinois

2020 IL App (3d) 190159
162 N.E.3d 373
443 Ill.Dec. 739

LANDMARKS ILLINOIS, National Trust for Historic Preservation, Rock Island Preservation Society, Moline Preservation Society, Broadway Historic District Association, Frederick Shaw, and Diane Oestreich, Plaintiffs-Appellants,
v.
The ROCK ISLAND COUNTY BOARD, and the Rock Island County Public Building Commission, Defendants-Appellees.

Appeal No. 3-19-0159

Appellate Court of Illinois, Third District.

Opinion filed July 16, 2020

Randall E. Mehrberg, Thomas E. Quinn, and Charles W. Carlin, of Jenner & Block LLP, of Chicago, for appellants.

William P. Rector and Daniel F. Hardin, of Bozeman, Neighbour, Patton & Noe, LLP, of Moline, for appellee Rock Island County Board.

William Stengel and Sarah Gorham, of Stengel, Bailey & Robertson, of Rock Island, for other appellee.

Kwame Raoul, Attorney General, of Chicago (Jane Elinor Notz, Solicitor General, and Paul Racette, Assistant Attorney General, of counsel), for amicus curiae Illinois Department of Natural Resources.

JUSTICE HOLDRIDGE delivered the judgment of the court, with opinion.

443 Ill.Dec. 745

¶ 1 This action was brought to halt the demolition of the Rock Island County courthouse (courthouse), which the plaintiffs claim the defendants are attempting to accomplish in violation of the law. The courthouse was constructed in 1896 and opened in 1897. After constructing new courtrooms and other judicial facilities as an annex to the nearby Rock Island County jail (Annex), defendants Rock Island County Board (the Board) and Rock Island County Public Building Commission (PBC) entered into an intergovernmental agreement to demolish the courthouse. In order to complete the demolition project, the defendants must obtain a permit from the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA) to discharge stormwater associated with the demolition site.

¶ 2 The Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR), which has filed an amicus brief in support of the plaintiffs' position in this appeal, has determined that the courthouse is eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places and is therefore a "historic resource" triggering the protections of the Illinois State Agency Historic Resources Preservation Act (Preservation Act) ( 20 ILCS 3420/1 et seq. (West 2016)). Pursuant to the Preservation Act's requirements, the IDNR initiated a consultation process with the IEPA to discuss alternatives to the proposed demolition

162 N.E.3d 380

443 Ill.Dec. 746

that could eliminate, minimize, or mitigate the adverse impact that the demolition would have upon a historic resource. The IDNR directed the defendants to halt the planned demolition until that consultation process has been completed. The defendants defied the IDNR's directive and announced their intention to proceed with the demolition immediately.

¶ 3 Plaintiffs Landmarks Illinois, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the Rock Island Preservation Society, the Moline Preservation Society, the Broadway Historic District Association, Frederick Shaw (Shaw), and Diane Oestreich (Oestreich) are local and national organizations and individuals "who appreciate (or whose members appreciate) the cultural, aesthetic, and historic value of the Historic Courthouse." Plaintiffs Illinois Landmarks and Shaw are also owners of bonds issued by the PBC for the construction of the Annex, the proceeds of which the defendants intend to use to finance the demolition. The plaintiffs filed a complaint in the circuit court of Rock Island County seeking declarative relief, a temporary restraining order (TRO), and an injunction halting the demolition. They alleged that the defendants' plan to demolish the courthouse violated two Illinois statutes—the Preservation Act and the Public Building Commission Act (Commission Act) ( 50 ILCS 20/1 et seq. (West 2016))—and the PBC's covenants with plaintiff bondholders Illinois Landmarks and Shaw.

¶ 4 The defendants moved to dismiss the plaintiffs' complaint under section 2-615 of the Code of Civil Procedure (Code) ( 735 ILCS 5/2-615 (West 2018) ), arguing that the allegations in the plaintiffs' complaint failed as a matter of law because the planned demolition of the courthouse was immune from the Preservation Act, did not violate the Commission Act, and did not breach the PBC's bond covenants with Illinois Landmarks and Shaw. The Board also moved to dismiss the complaint under section 2-619 of the Code ( 735 ILCS 5/2-619 (West 2018) ), arguing that the plaintiffs lacked standing to bring their claims against the defendants.

¶ 5 On March 19, 2019, the trial court issued an oral ruling denying the defendants' section 2-619 motion to dismiss for lack of standing but granting the defendants' section 2-615 motions to dismiss all of the plaintiffs' claims for failure to state a claim. The circuit court granted plaintiffs Illinois Landmarks and Shaw leave to replead their bond claims but barred any future claims seeking equitable relief under the Preservation Act or the Commission Act. The plaintiffs asked the trial court to keep the TRO in place for seven days while they decided whether to file an appeal. The trial court denied the plaintiffs' request. Two days later, the plaintiffs filed an interlocutory appeal of the trial court's order pursuant to Illinois Supreme Court Rule 307(d) (eff. Nov. 1, 2017)) and an emergency petition to stay the trial court's order pending resolution of the appeal.

¶ 6 On March 22, 2019, we granted the plaintiffs' emergency petition for stay. That same day, the trial court issued a written order memorializing its dismissal of counts I, II, and III of the plaintiffs' complaint with prejudice. The trial court's written order included a finding, pursuant to Illinois Supreme Court Rule 304(a) (eff. Mar. 8, 2016)), that "an appeal may be taken from its final judgment on counts I, II, and III because there [was] no just reason for delaying an appeal." Thereafter, the plaintiffs filed a Notice of Appeal appealing the court's written judgment order and asked this Court to consolidate that appeal with their prior Rule 307(d) interlocutory appeal.

162 N.E.3d 381

443 Ill.Dec. 747

¶ 7 On April 1, 2019, we granted plaintiffs' Rule 307(d) petition and ordered that both the stay that we had previously entered and the TRO issued by the trial court would remain in full force and effect until we have issued a decision on the appeal at issue in this case.

¶ 8 FACTS

¶ 9 The following facts are taken from the allegations of the plaintiffs' complaint and documents attached to the complaint. The PBC was established by the Board on October 1, 1981, for the "sole purpose * * * of exercising the powers and authority of [the Commission Act] to provide a good and sufficient jail for the use of Rock Island County." In or around 1998, the PBC added courtrooms to the Rock Island County jail building in a facility that was referred to as the jail's "Justice Center."

¶ 10 In 2013, the Board sought to build a new courthouse and administration center as an annex to the jail and Justice Center. Acknowledging that building a courthouse and county administration center was outside the scope of the PBC's existing authorization, the Board planned a referendum asking local citizens to expand the PBC's authority so that it could legally build the proposed Annex. An informational voter guide on the proposed referendum stated that the county could not use the existing PBC to build the proposed Annex because (1) "[w]hen this PBC was established in the 1980s, it was limited to just jail purposes.—That has severely limited [the county's] ability to repair/replace the aging courthouse"; (2) "[a] Courthouse and County Administration Center are outside the scope of the present PBC authorization"; and (3) "[i]t takes voter approval to expand the scope of the PBC." On April 9, 2013, the Board placed the question of whether to expand the powers of the PBC beyond the provision of a jail to the electorate at a referendum. The ballot provision read:

"Shall the County Board of Rock Island County be authorized to expand the purpose of the Rock Island County Building Commission, Rock Island County, Illinois, to include all the powers and authority prescribed by the Public Building Commission Act?"

The referendum failed to pass, with 61% of voters voting against the proposal.

¶ 11 Following the failure of the referendum, the Board passed a resolution on June 17, 2015, authorizing the PBC to build a new courthouse as an annex to the jail, which would include additional civil courtrooms, circuit clerk space, and a law library. The chief judge of the Fourteenth Judicial Circuit (Judge Walter Braud) subsequently appointed a special prosecutor to file a quo warranto lawsuit against the PBC within the Fourteenth Judicial Circuit (the 2015 Litigation) in order to test whether the PBC had the authority to build the Annex pursuant to its original purpose of building a jail.

¶ 12 In the 2015 Litigation, the circuit court of Henry County held that the Annex project was "within and consistent with" the PBC's purpose of providing for a good and sufficient jail and was therefore within...