Mundelein wins shopping center suit

Actions by Mundelein village officials involving the approval of a shopping center fronting Route 60 were reasonable, a Lake County judge has determined.

Associate Judge Mitchell Hoffman's ruling last Friday in the village's favor ends nearly three years of litigation with neighbors in unincorporated Ivanhoe, who argued they were not able to properly make their case against the proposed center during the approval process.

Opponents also contended the development would infringe on their property rights and hurt their home values.

"The judge ruled in the village's and developer's favor," said Lawrence LaLuzerne, a Waukegan attorney, who represented the village in the suit brought in August 2007.

The gist of the decision was the village acted reasonably and did not violate its own rules, he added.

Plaintiffs included the Ivanhoe Club property owners association, the Ivanhoe Club and four individual residents. Their attorney could not be reached Wednesday.

Pending a 30-day appeal period, the decision allows the Rubloff Development Group Inc. to proceed with a plan for a 600,000-square-foot center across the street from Mundelein Crossings, a large retail area that opened in 2004.

A Walmart supercenter, Menards, and Kohl's were among the prospective tenants at the time the center was proposed. Whether that is still the case remains to be seen.

"Certainly a lot has changed in the last 2 1/2 years," said Village Administrator John Lobaito. "The question for the developer is which users are still interested. We've gone through a time when a number of retailers have closed their doors."

Because of the time that has passed, certain aspects of the agreement between the village and Rubloff will have to be updated. Obligations on both sides have "gone stale," Lobaito said, and Rubloff has not completed the property purchase.

Part of the agreement has the village rebating a percentage of sales tax up to $6 million to help pay for about $15 million in road improvements near the site. Those were to include intersection upgrades and a road connecting routes 60 and 176.

Lobaito described the lawsuit as "frivolous" and said the delay has been "extremely harmful" to the village and other entities that could have benefitted from the sales tax.

Meanwhile, the village remains hopeful about the project, he added.

"We're still in constant dialogue with the developer and everyone is all in," Lobaito said.