Restaurant owner: Mt. Prospect won't push me out

Never without his U.S. Marines baseball cap, Tod Curtis is a walking, talking symbol of old downtown Mount Prospect.

He and his Ye Olde Town Inn have been around for more than 40 years. It's a place where waitresses know what regulars like on their pizza and customers take advantage of draft beer specials during the week.

But according to Curtis, life outside the Inn's wood paneled walls isn't quite as cozy.

He believes Mount Prospect village officials have been conspiring to drive him out of business for years, and want him out now, in particular, to proceed with a downtown development without him.

In response, he is pursuing a civil racketeering lawsuit against Mayor Irvana Wilks, several municipal employees and a local developer, alleging they have formed an "ongoing enterprise and scheme" for nearly a decade.

"People know me around here and I'm not going to take it," Curtis said.

Racketeering lawsuits are typically used to uncover organized crime rings and corrupt politicians,

"The RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act) statute was meant to uncover serious felony conduct, normally for criminal prosecution," said Len Cavise, a DePaul University law professor.

"Civil racketeering still exists, but it's being used in ways it was never meant to," Cavise said. "I heard about a woman who filed a civil racketeering lawsuit against a moving company who charged her extra fees."

According to Curtis, village officials "employed endless harassing inspections of the property."

They also allowed the Blues Bar, owned by local developer and dentist Errol Oztekin, to be built next door, even though they knew it would damage the Inn because the establishments share a wall.

In short, village officials want Curtis out of Mount Prospect, he believes.

"... Their actions were calculated to harm and harass (Curtis) and to send a clear message to Curtis that he was to leave the village," according to the lawsuit. "... Actions included a variety of trespasses, harassment, intentional damage to the property, bogus emergencies staged by the village."

One of those actions occurred on April 11, 2008, after the village shut down the Ye Olde Town Inn for code violations related to structural, plumbing and electrical problems.

Mount Prospect officials and Oztekin call the suit ridiculous and deny his allegations.

"Anyone can file a lawsuit," Oztekin said. "Everything he is saying is untrue. I don't know what his issues are, except that obviously he has a long fight going on with the village and I'm stuck in the middle. I've met the man one time, and that was back in 2006."

Since opening his Blues Bar in 2007, Oztekin said he has received hundreds of letters from Curtis' lawyers.

"I've never done any damage to his building, we made sure there was no damage," Oztekin said. "I've never conspired with the village. I've done everything by the book."

Curtis said village officials want him out of the way to make room for a $40 million town center project that the board approved in May.

Plans consist of two, 7-story buildings and one 5-story building on 2 acres downtown, that would contain more than 100 condominiums and 30,000-40,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space.

The development area is locally called the "small triangle" and is bounded by Northwest Highway, Route 83 and Willie Street.

Developer John Heimbaugh owns four parcels there: 15, 19 and 22 W. Busse Ave. and 108 S. Main St. Heimbaugh gained control of them when Oztekin sold all his holdings in the triangle, except for the Blues Bar.

In 2006, Oztekin unveiled plans to develop the triangle into a dining and entertainment hub, but he had only finished the Blues Bar before opting out of the project.

The town center project is on hold "because of current market conditions," said Bill Cooney, Mount Prospect's director of community development.

For the past two years, the village has been trying to acquire Curtis' land through eminent domain. Eventually the acquisition could end up in a place both Curtis and village officials are familiar with - court.

"It's currently under review by a judge, but it could end up going before a jury who will decide the value of the property," Cooney said. "That wouldn't happen until late this year."

Curtis, meanwhile, has his own development plan for the area that he calls the Gateway Centre of Mount Prospect.

His project would be a contemporary brick structure, with Ye Olde Town Inn Restaurant and other current occupants of the site on the first floor. The second floor would be office condominiums while five floors of residential condominiums with secured rooftop parking for residents and guests would top off the project.

Cooney said village officials looked over the plans when Curtis submitted them last year and "responded with a long list of comments."

"From what I remember, there wasn't enough parking, and it didn't comply with code," Cooney said. "We never heard back from him."