Bloomingdale wants Indian Lakes lawsuit dismissed
Attorneys for Bloomingdale are asking a DuPage County judge to dismiss a lawsuit brought by the owner of Indian Lakes Resort and a company seeking to redevelop roughly 190 acres of the property.
Property owner First ILR LLC and developer K. Hovnanian T & C Homes filed the suit in March against Bloomingdale to compel the village to perform a preliminary review of plans for the site.
The plaintiffs say the village has refused to schedule public hearings for K. Hovnanian's proposal to rezone the 223-acre resort's former golf course and transform it into a neighborhood with hundreds of houses for empty nesters.
Village officials insist that K. Hovnanian's application can't go to the planning and zoning commission because it's incomplete. They say K. Hovnanian must provide final engineering because it wants to rezone the land.
Bloomingdale's attorneys have filed a motion to dismiss the case. They are scheduled to appear in court on Monday.
In the motion, the village's attorneys argue that K. Hovnanian submitted its Sept. 15, 2017, application in accordance with a section of the Bloomingdale Village Code that doesn't allow for preliminary plan approval.
"Because (the section) does not provide for 'preliminary plan approval,' the village's requirement that (K. Hovnanian) submit final plans for approval was appropriate and consistent ..." according to the motion.
The village's attorneys also argue the matter "is not ripe for review" by the court because K. Hovnanian "has failed to exhaust its administrative remedies."
According to the motion, K. Hovnanian could have pursued alternatives with the village.
Bloomingdale officials have blamed the developer's rezoning request for complicating the process. Final engineering is needed for a rezoning in the village, they say.
To resolve that issue, K. Hovnanian could have dropped its rezoning request and submitted an application for a planned unit development, according to the motion to dismiss.
But in the lawsuit, K. Hovnanian argues that its application and accompanying materials comply with the requirements of the village's zoning ordinance.
Under its plan, the company wants to build a subdivision for residents 55 and older that would be called "Four Seasons at Indian Lakes" and have 535 ranch-style houses.
The legal action comes more than a year after First ILR announced plans for the redevelopment and a major renovation of the hotel along Schick Road.
A 27-hole golf course and a 36,000-square-foot conference center were closed in late 2016 as part of an effort to save the hotel. Indian Lakes officials said the golf course was losing nearly $1 million a year.
But because of the delay in redeveloping the golf course, First ILR has said upgrades to the hotel and a new franchise agreement have been placed on indefinite hold.