Jury: Oak Brook didn't discriminate against disabled

A federal jury ruled Friday that Oak Brook leaders did not discriminate against disabled individuals when they rejected a DuPage Housing Authority proposal to turn an old friary at the Mayslake Forest Preserve into an assisted living center.

The verdict caps a two-week trial and a six-year battle that pitted the upscale community against the forest preserve and housing authority.

In the end, the 10 jurors - seven women and three men - agreed with Oak Brook attorney Jim DeAno, who said the disabled weren't being singled out.

"They weren't denied because they were handicapped," he said. "They were denied because they were trying to live in a conservation and recreation district."

DeAno argued that the forest preserve district had requested the zoning change from residential after it purchased the 90-acre Mayslake Forest Preserve property in the mid-1990s. To allow a residential component within the parcel goes against the forest preserve's own guidelines, he pointed out during closing arguments Friday.

Attorneys for the forest preserve and housing authority complained disabled residents were being singled out because Oak Brook previously had approved a development deal for the friary that would have had a residential component. DeAno said that project involved transient housing for visiting guests and would have been more like lodging than housing.

Housing authority lawyer Mike Roth said Oak Brook village trustees allowed influential residents to make disparaging remarks about the poor during debates about the project that improperly affected the proceedings. The housing authority and forest preserve district sued the village in 2002 and Roth said in that time the village still has not allowed anyone to build an assisted-living center in the village.

"They can't sit there quietly and let it happen," he said. "They showed a callous disregard for the needs of the handicapped."

Roth also argued that the project was approved unanimously by the village's plan commission and zoning board of appeals, but DeAno noted village trustees are not obligated to vote in favor of something simply because an advisory body favors it.

"They need to prove this was discrimination," DeAno said, "not that it was a great project."

The project to refurbish the friary was anticipated to cost about $20 million six years ago. The housing authority and forest preserve were seeking $13.8 million to cover increases in construction and financing costs as well as the authority to proceed with the project.

DuPage Housing Authority President John Day called Friday's defeat a major setback and said he was unaware of any plans to relocate the project elsewhere.