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East Dundee, Carpentersville continue Wal-Mart feud

The feud over a new Wal-Mart Supercenter proposed for Carpentersville continued this week as East Dundee filed a lawsuit arguing Carpentersville had withheld information in a recent Freedom of Information Act request.

East Dundee, which will lose its Wal-Mart at 620 Dundee Ave. if the new one is built, argues Carpentersville did not include the retailer's application for special taxing district funding in response to a June 16 FOIA request.

East Dundee has unsuccessfully sought a restraining order blocking the world's largest retailer's access to some $4.3 million in Tax Increment Financing District funds to erect a 185,685-square-foot store at Lake Marian Road and Route 25 in Carpentersville.

In a TIF district, property tax levels for a blighted area are frozen for a period of up to 23 years. As development or redevelopment occurs, the increase in property values, or increment, is used to pay off municipal bonds for infrastructure improvement or given to a developer to defray capital costs.

A judge threw out East Dundee's lawsuit twice and the village is taking its case, which also argues a state law mandates a distance of at least 10-mile radius to stop communities from poaching businesses, to the state's Supreme Court.

East Dundee's FOIA request sought “written correspondence and records of all oral comments” between Wal-Mart and Carpentersville regarding the retailer's TIF application.

“Carpentersville failed to provide Wal-Mart's application for TIF assistance,” wrote East Dundee attorney Thomas Gardiner in the suit. “Carpentersville failed to identify or even acknowledge receipt of Wal-Mart's application for TIF assistance.”

Carpentersville leaders discussed the plan in June. When a Kane County judge dismissed East Dundee's request for a restraining order, he ruled there was no imminent threat the plan could be approved.

East Dundee's FOIA request could be an effort to show the plan is close to approval. A message left for Gardiner was not returned.

Village leaders still must hold a public hearing before the plan commission, a date of which will probably be after Labor Day, said Steven Elrod, attorney for Carpentersville.

Elrod said Carpentersville has received East Dundee's lawsuit.

“They served us with a FOIA (request). We responded. They weren't happy with our response, which we are confident is in full compliance with the law,” Elrod said. “We provided them with everything to which they are entitled.”

Both sides are due in court Dec. 3.

Judge again throws out East Dundee's lawsuit over Carpentersville Walmart

Walmart requesting TIF help from Carpentersville

East Dundee appeals Wal-Mart case to Illinois Supreme Court

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