COD, Glen Ellyn fight over sidewalks

College of DuPage President Robert Breuder says the fast-escalating battle with Glen Ellyn over electronic signs on campus is the result of the village's latest "heavy-handed" attempts to assert its authority over the school - an authority he insists doesn't exist.

Breuder acknowledges that in some instances, such as issues involving stormwater and right-of-way, the school is required to comply with village ordinances.

But he insists the $2 million project to replace roughly 4,000 interior and exterior signs across campus falls under the state's jurisdiction and not the village's.

The village told the school in April that its new outdoor message signs violate Glen Ellyn codes.

"If they take a view different from ours, let the courts decide," Breuder said Thursday. "In the meantime, don't interrupt what we are doing."

For the second straight day, the village issued citations to the college and its contractors for working on the signs in violation of a stop-work order and for working without a permit.

Breuder said the conflict stems from village President Mark Pfefferman's desire to get sidewalks installed along Fawell Boulevard, a move school officials say is both costly and unnecessary.

In February, Pfefferman sent Breuder a list of concerns the village had with the school's construction plan as a follow-up to a one-on-one meeting in December. Among the concerns was a bulleted list of six items the village hoped the school would go along with, including sidewalk and bike path installation, as well as landscaped medians. The village also asked for a stretch of property along Lambert Road, a request Breuder said the school agreed to.

Village Manager Steve Jones said the issue remains jurisdiction, not sidewalks.

"They are trying to change the subject into something it is not," he said.

It is not clear when the court case will be decided, although the school's attempt to secure a temporary restraining order against the village to allow work to continue was rejected in June.

In 2007, under the school's previous administration, it entered into an intergovernmental agreement that Breuder told the Daily Herald Thursday was "too one-sided." He disputed the notion the school believes it can always just do what it wants.

"We don't believe in that," he said. "We want to be good corporate citizens. But why would we acquiesce to (sign regulation)? We have got to get this resolved once and for all."