Legal Battle Heats Up Over 53 Acres at Quentin and Route 22

The is beginning to reach a boiling point over 53 acres of property at the northwest corner of Route 22 and Quentin Road.

The has been busy contacting the several property owners of the land in question for the last couple of weeks, letting them know they plan to forcibly annex the property at the Oct. 3  meeting, said Village Administrator Bob Vitas.

“Based on Judge Mitchell Hoffman’s ruling, we amended our agreement with Kildeer at the last meeting, and we now have taken steps to annex the unincorporated territory,” Vitas said. “It is going to be a forcible annexation.”

A 1993 agreement between Lake Zurich and Kildeer required that both villages agree on any future development due to the close proximity of municipal boundary lines.

The southwest corner of Quentin and Route 22 is in the village of Kildeer, while the northwest and southwest corners are in the boundaries of Lake Zurich. To make matters more complicated, the northeast corner is considered in the boundary of Hawthorn Woods. 

to keep Hawthorn Woods from annexing properties contained within the 50-plus acres after the village had taken initial steps to do so.

“The preliminary injunction is valid, and though Hawthorn Woods is appealing, the decision has been held off for 90 days based on what the judge ordered, nothing is barring us from doing this,” Vitas said.

If approved by the Lake Zurich board, the properties will be annexed at the same time rather than separately to keep the costs down, said Vitas.

“They already have Lake Zurich addresses. The only real difference is instead of the Lake County sheriff, Lake Zurich police will respond to emergencies,” Vitas said. “The fire service remains unchanged, but there would be a village tax depending on the value of each property.”

A number of property owners previously had submitted voluntary annexation petitions to Hawthorn Woods, but Judge Hoffman’s ruling prevented Hawthorn Woods from acting on those petitions.

Vitas said the validity of those petitions is debatable, because they are on the Lake Zurich side of the boundary agreement, which Judge Hoffman also recently upheld. 

Hawthorn Woods leaders say they, too, will continue to abide by the judge’s order. The village appealed the recent decision, and is awaiting a decision on that appeal.

“The village of Hawthorn Woods respects the authority of the courts, and right now this matter is before the appellate court,” said Pam Newton, Hawthorn Woods' chief operating officer. “The village will respect that process, and if our neighboring village chooses not to respect the legal process, then Hawthorn Woods will respond through the proper legal channels.”

The property owned by Dennis and Charlene Wooten, who own the Cedar Hill Nursery, is at the center of the land fight. Vitas said the Wootens, along with several other property owners, are free to sell their land if they so choose.

Bradford Equities LLC previously had entered into an agreement to buy the Wooten property, but the contract required that the property be allowed for commercial development within 120 days of June 22, 2011.

Dennis Wooten testified at a hearing this summer that his family would suffer "substantial economic hardship" if the sale of the property couldn’t happen, after a number of other offers fell through over the last 12 years.

“These steps will allow them to sell their land after all of these years and to benefit,” Vitas said.

The holdup was a stalled agreement between Lake Zurich and the village of Kildeer that dates back to 1993, which required consensus from the two villages on any commercial development at Quentin and Route 22. Kildeer approved its end of the agreement with Lake Zurich in April. The approved the agreement at the Sept. 6 meeting.

Mayor Suzanne Branding was required to vote to achieve a majority approval after Trustees Rich Sustich and Tom Poyton voted against it, and Trustee Jeff Halen abstained from voting.

The agreement stipulates that Lake Zurich and Kildeer equally split gross profits from any future commercial development.

“I have a problem with the revenue sharing — to give Kildeer 50 percent of the revenues. Unless there is something going on I don’t know about, what do we get out of it,” Poynton asked at the Sept. 6 meeting.

“The development agreement says there is a 50/50 revenue share; if a future developer gets a share over 10 years (as an incentive), Lake Zurich gets nothing,” Halen said.

Halen also expressed concerns over the village shouldering the burden of initial infrastructure costs due to the properties being located in Lake Zurich.

“I question if there are developer incentives, will they be equally shared by Lake Zurich and Kildeer?” Rich Sustich asked during an interview with Lake Zurich Patch on Sept. 15. “It is clear that Lake Zurich will be 100 percent responsible for long-term maintenance on the potential future development.”

“If we both benefit, do we also share the pain?” Sustich said.

Vitas said the development agreement would allow Cedar Hill Nursery to relocate on the collective property with better access into it, and that it potentially could include a restaurant, bank and a grocery store.

Dennis Wooten also testified at a hearing that due to the installation of medians by the Illinois Department of Transportation, his business has suffered greatly due to poor access to it from the west.

Meanwhile, Hawthorn Woods is optimistic that Lake Zurich’s plans will not see the light of day.

“We think we are going to win the appeal and have priority over Lake Zurich because we initiated our annexation proceedings first,” said Tom Burney, attorney for Hawthorn Woods.

“Everything should be stayed to see what the appellate court rules, instead of having to unwind all of this after we win this appeal,” Burney said. “We think Lake Zurich should stand down on proceeding forward.”

Burney said a ruling on Hawthorn Woods’ appeal should be made within the next couple of months.