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Sunday October 12, 2008
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Skokie issues eminent domain suit in bid to further redevelopment plan for W. Dempster

Anyone who lives in Skokie will warn you to stay away from Dempster Street during rush hour. As the busiest thoroughfare in the Village, Dempster serves as the main access point for area residents that live or work in Skokie and travel on the Edens Expressway on their daily commute.

The excessive amount of traffic has led the Village to re-evaluate their development goals for the increasingly rundown real estate along the Village's western corridor, with a focus on fomenting a bustling locality filled with new businesses and built to provide local employees with incentives to use the public transit system built around the Skokie Swift.

The Western Dempster Street Business Redevelopment District (WSRD) was established in 2003 as part of the Skokie 2020 development strategy. Community leaders have in recent years spent much of their efforts re-imagining the image of Skokie and the expansion of commercial opportunities and residential development.

The provisos set forth in the WSRD call for a total overhaul of the area, and specifically assert the Village's intention to use eminent domain to seize property that they believe is not being effectively utilized to the further the communities interests.

The project took an advanced step toward implementing the plan by issuing an eminent domain suit against owners of property on the 4600 block of Dempster. The Village argues that stalled buyout negotiations with Dan and Susan Donian, owners of the property on the corner of Niles Center and Dempster, left them no choice but to file a suit. The Donians charge that the outcome of the negotiations was unacceptable.

The Donians' primary contention to the pending suit is that complications involving tax liability and contractual obligations to the land's current tenet prevent it from accepting the Village's final offer, which they also argue sorely undervalues the value of the area.

Avery Tarshis, 30-year Skokie resident and owner of Value Transmission, the business that now occupies the land at issue, claims that the Village officials offered only 50-percent of the cost he estimated he would incur by moving to another Skokie location procured by the Village to fulfill their obligations under the eminent domain statute.

For their part, the Village insists that they have given the matter more than ample time to unfold, and insist that they were rebuffed on several occasions over a two year period when trying to finalize terms with the Donians. Corporate Counsel, Patrick Hanley insists that the Village only uses eminent domain when left no other option, but the Village has already filed four such lawsuits in the last six months.

A suit was also filed with owners of a vacant lot that sits adjacent to the Donians' lot. Both Mr. Hanley and Village Manager, Al Rigoni, have stressed both Dempster properties must be developed together if the redevelopment strategy is ultimately going to succeed.

This battle is far from over, and if this matter becomes a legal nightmare for the Village it could, based upon their own claims, seriously inhibit the municipality's ability to achieve the goals set forth in the West Dempster plan.

The burden is likely to rest with Skokie officials to enforce their claim of eminent domain because the land is being seized for private development, which was only recently granted approval by the Supreme Court and is a ruling that is anything but written in stone. To the chagrin of the Village of Skokie planners, the West Dempster Redevelopment Plan no longer appears to be a done deal either.

by Brian T. Edwards

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