Bd. of Educ. of Richland Sch. Dist. No. 88a v. City of Crest Hill

2021 IL 126444

183 N.E.3d 856

451 Ill.Dec. 399

The BOARD OF EDUCATION OF RICHLAND SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 88A, Appellee,

v.The CITY OF CREST HILL, Appellant.

Docket No. 126444

Supreme Court of Illinois.

Opinion filed September 23, 2021.

Mary J. Riordan, of Mary Riordan, Ltd., of Chicago, and Scott Hoster, of Castle Law, LLC, of Joliet, for appellant.

Howard C. Jablecki, Gregory T. Smith, and Scott E. Nemanich, of Klein, Thorpe & Jenkins, Ltd., of Chicago, for appellee.

Patrick W. Hayes, of Illinois Municipal League, of Springfield, amicus curiae.

Ares G. Dalianis and Caroline K. Kane, of Franczek P.C., of Chicago, for amici curiae Illinois Association of School Boards et al.

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

¶ 1 The appellee, the Board of Education of Richland School District No. 88A (School Board), sought equitable relief in the Will County circuit court from ordinances enacted by the appellant, the City of Crest Hill (Crest Hill), creating a real property tax increment financing (TIF) district and attendant redevelopment plan and project, pursuant to the Tax Increment Allocation Redevelopment Act (TIF Act) ( 65 ILCS 5/11-74.4-1 et seq. (West 2018)). The School Board compl858ained that Crest Hill created the district in violation of the TIF Act by, among other things, including parcels of realty in the redevelopment project area that were not contiguous. Both parties filed cross-motions for summary judgment, and the circuit court granted summary judgment in favor of Crest Hill. The School Board appealed, and the Appellate Court, Third District, reversed the circuit court's order. For the following reasons, we affirm the judgment of the appellate court and reverse the judgment of the circuit court.

¶ 2 I. BACKGROUND

¶ 3 We limit our review of the facts to those relevant to our determination on appeal. In 2017, Crest Hill sought to establish the Weber Road Corridor TIF District (Weber TIF District) pursuant to the provisions of the TIF Act (id. ) and adopted corresponding TIF ordinances (City of Crest Hill Ordinance Nos. 1758, 1759, 1760 (eff. Nov. 20, 2017)). TIF ordinance number 1758 provided, inter alia , that Crest Hill had determined that the parcels of real property proposed to form the redevelopment project area of the Weber TIF District were contiguous as required by the TIF Act ( 65 ILCS 5/11-74.4-4(a) (West 2018)).

¶ 4 On January 2, 2018, the School Board filed suit requesting the circuit court to declare Crest Hill's TIF ordinances invalid, illegal, and void ab initio and to enjoin Crest Hill's implementation of the Weber TIF District and execution of its redevelopment project and plan. The School Board alleged that Crest Hill's TIF ordinances were invalid due to noncompliance with the statutory mandates of the TIF Act ( 65 ILCS 5/11-74.4-1 et seq. (West 2018)). The School Board asserted, inter alia , that the northwestern portion of the Weber TIF District did not touch or adjoin in any substantial physical sense the remainder of the Weber TIF District and, therefore, the parcels in the redevelopment project area were not contiguous, as required by section 11-74.4-4(a) of the TIF Act. Id. § 11-74.4-4(a). For context, we have included notated maps of the Weber TIF District, previously published in the appellate court's opinion, immediately below.

¶ 5 Parcels A, B, and C in the depictions were annexed to Crest Hill in 2000 and 2002. City of Crest Hill Ordinance No. 1149 (eff. July 17, 2000); City of Crest Hill Ordinance No. 1150 (eff. July 17, 2000); City of Crest Hill Ordinance No. 1245 (eff. May 20, 2002). The strip of land running parallel and adjacent to parcels A and B for 234.9 feet, as shown in the depictions, is owned by Natural Gas Pipeline, a utility company located in Houston, Texas. See 2019 Levy Real Estate Tax Information , Will County Treasurer, http://willtax.willcountydata.com/maintax/ccgis52?1104203000080000 (last visited July 22, 2020) [https://perma.cc/X2C6-AC33]; see also People v. Johnson , 2021 IL 125738, ¶ 54, 450 Ill.Dec. 916, 182 N.E.3d 728 ("Illinois courts often take judicial notice of facts that are readily verifiable by referring to sources of indisputable accuracy" such as court records or public documents, including records on government website).¹

¶ 6 The School Board attached to its complaint the "Weber Road Corridor TIF Redevelopment Plan and Project" prepared for Crest Hill in July 2017 by Camiros, Ltd., a planning firm dealing in tax increment allocation and redevelopment financing in Illinois. This document noted that the "triangular-shaped area of land located north of Division Street [wa]s excluded from the [Weber TIF District] because it [wa]s *** unincorporated and *** not being annexed into *** Crest Hill at [the] time. This excluded area include[d] a natural gas utility pipeline right-of-way that extend[ed] through the northeast quadrant of the [p]roject [a]rea."

¶ 7 In its answer to the School Board's argument that the Weber TIF District lacked contiguity, Crest Hill asserted that "[t]he property north of Division Street ha[d] a common border with the property to the west of the excluded utility pipeline, which [was] a 100[-]foot[-]wide public utility right-of-way, of 234.9 feet." Crest Hill noted that parcels A and B were found to be contiguous when annexed by excluding this public utility right-of-way. Crest Hill further noted that "[t]he width of Longmeadow Drive [also referred to as Randich Road], immediately east and west of the public utility right-of-way [wa]s 66 feet." Crest Hill argued that, by excluding the pipeline as permitted during annexation and by combining the right-of-way and Randich Road border measurements, parcels A and B would touch by a length of over 300 feet.

¶ 8 On December 21, 2018, Crest Hill and the School Board filed cross-motions for summary judgment. In its motion and memorandum in support of its motion for summary judgment, the School Board noted that the excluded area between parcels A and B included privately owned, unincorporated property. The School Board further noted that, to establish contiguity, Crest Hill sought to rely solely on a 234.9-foot section of property to connect the 74-acre-plus parcel to the southeastern portion of the Weber TIF District.

¶ 9 In response, Crest Hill acknowledged that the sole contiguity between parcels A and B was established by excluding a public utility right-of-way. Crest Hill argued that the annexation provisions of the Illinois Municipal Code expressly permitted it to "jump" over the public utility right-of-way for purposes of the prior annexation of parcel B. See 65 ILCS 5/7-1-1 (West 2018). Crest Hill argued that, if contiguity existed for the purpose of annexation, it must also exist for the same parcels in creating the Weber TIF District.

¶ 10 The School Board rejected Crest Hill's contentions. The School Board maintained that the area northwest of the excluded area (parcels B and C) was not contiguous to the remainder of the redevelopment project area in the Weber TIF District (parcel A). The School Board argued that the portion of the Municipal Code governing TIF districts did not allow Crest Hill to "jump" the 234.9-foot portion of the utility parcel to establish contiguity between parcels A and B. The School Board pointed out that, because annexations and TIF districts are governed by independent provisions of the Municipal Code, reliance on the express statutory exemption contained in the annexation provisions of the Municipal Code, and not contained in the TIF Act, was improper. The School Board further argued that section 11-74.4-4 of the TIF Act (id. § 11-74.4-4), expressly allowing redevelopment project areas separated by a public right-of-way to share revenues, supported the School Board's contention that contiguity of a single redevelopment project area cannot be established by excluding a public right-of-way. The School Board argued that, if the court accepted Crest Hill's argument that the statutory exemptions from the annexation statute could be used to establish contiguity for the Weber TIF district, section 11-74.4-4 of the TIF Act would be rendered meaningless.

¶ 11 In support of its argument, the School Board relied on the deposition testimony of Jeanne Lindwall, principal consultant for Camiros, Ltd., who prepared the TIF eligibility study and plan for Crest Hill. Lindwall agreed that the contiguity of the northwestern portion of the Weber TIF District (parcels B and C) and the remainder of the Weber TIF District (parcel A) was "solely based" on Crest Hill's ability to "jump" the 100.4-foot-wide by 234.9-foot-long portion of the utility parcel. Lindwall agreed this was "the only way" to get contiguity to parcel B from parcel A. Lindwall explained that 66 feet of Randich Road would also be included to establish contiguity, but the "primary contiguity" originated from excluding the public utility right-of-way. Lindwall admitted that she had relied upon legal counsel's explanations of contiguity under "the annexation statute" and that, if her understanding of contiguity were incorrect, "there would be no contiguity" between parcels A and B. Lindwall acknowledged that the utility parcel split the Weber TIF District, had not been incorporated into city limits, and had not been included in the Weber TIF District.

¶ 12 On February 15, 2019, the circuit court held a hearing on the parties’ motions for summary judgment, before taking the matter under advisement. On March 28, 2019, the circuit court granted Crest Hill's motion for summary judgment and denied the School Board's motion. With regard to contiguity, the circuit court found that "over 400 feet of contiguity" connected parcels A and B so that contiguity existed between the northwestern portion (parcels B and C) and the remainder (parcel A) of the Weber TIF District. The circuit court determined that the existence of the public utility right-of-way "easement" between parcels A and B was "of...