Court upholds 5 Campton Hills disconnections

Campton Hills will re-evaluate its legal strategy after losing appeals in five property-disconnection lawsuits, village officials said Friday.

The state appellate court this week upheld the disconnections of five outlying neighborhoods which have a collective population of about 700.

Village Attorney Bill Braithwaite said Friday the municipality's next step is determining what impact the ruling might have on 16 other pending cases, although a dissolution referendum on the Nov. 4 ballot could lead to the village's early demise.

"Most of the remaining cases have different legal circumstances," he said, declining to elaborate. "We'll be doing to case-by-case evaluation with the village board."

Officials downplayed the appeals decisions, noting the five disconnecting neighborhoods - Campton Farms, Cheval de Selle, Hidden Oaks, Moraines and Prairie Lakes - comprise only 5 percent of the village's 13,483 population. Village President Patsy Smith said she doubts the village would pursue further appeals, although it's not off the table.

"The village board will evaluate the possibility of a rehearing of the appellate court decision, but personally I would be surprised if our board took any further action," she said in a statement.

Since the village's controversial incorporation in May 2007, there have been dozens of attempts to remove individual border properties and entire neighborhoods from Campton Hills.

So far, the village has been unsuccessful in convincing the court to weigh the cumulative effect that removing multiple properties could have on the tax base.

Many of those who want out of the village say they generally prefer to live in an unincorporated area, with minimal services and taxes, but village officials counter the statute allowing them to disconnect was not intended for such a large number of properties and could be financially devastating.

In its ruling issued Wednesday, the appellate court wrote "the loss of future tax revenue of the pending cases has no bearing here."

"We further agree that the village's argument would lead to absurd results," the 26-page ruling states. "Petitioners would be barred from disconnecting simply because another unrelated disconnection action would be deemed to be 'too large' and they therefore would be held hostage to other proceedings over which they have no control."

The village board plans to discuss the cases in a closed meeting Tuesday.