Agenda - Planning Commission - 09/06/2018

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Zoning Bulletin August 25, 2018 I Volume 12 I Issue 16 religious worship located in that area of Cook County outside of the City of Chicago." (See 65 I11. Comp. Stat. Ann. 5/11-5-1.5.) The court noted that Illinois statutes preempt conflicting ordinances by non - home -rule municipalities such as the Village here. The Property at is- sue here —on which Chicago Joe's sought a special -use permit to oper- ate a strip club —was within one mile of a cemetery, two schools, three parks, and a church. Thus, by its terms, the state statute foreclosed Chicago Joe's attempt to operate a strip club at the Property, or, in fact to operate a strip club anywhere in the Village. Accordingly, the Seventh Circuit concluded that Chicago Joe's claims for injunctive relief were moot. Chicago Joe's argued that it had a vested right to use the Property in accordance with the law that existed at the time that it submitted the special -use permit application (i.e., when the prior version of the state statute, which was less restrictive, required only a 1,000-foot setback). The Seventh Circuit disagreed. The court explained that Illinois courts have "made clear that a property owner who claims a vested right must proceed according to the law as it existed at an earlier time, by 'at- tempting to comply with an ordinance as written.' " Here, the court concluded that Chicago Joe's did not have a vested right because its proposal to use the property would have violated at least one Village ordinance. The court found that Chicago Joe's application proposed a use with sales of alcoholic beverages, which would have violated a Vil- lage ordinance that expressly forbade adult businesses to "sell, distrib- ute, or permit beer or alcoholic beverages on the premises." In summary, the Seventh Circuit agreed with the district court that Chicago Joe's claims for injunctive relief were moot because Illinois' "adult entertainment facility" statute now prohibited Chicago Joe's from opening anywhere in the Village. The court concluded that the current state statute would effectively prohibit a court from granting ef- fective relief to Chicago Joe's even if Chicago Joe's prevailed on its federal constitutional challenges to the Village ordinances. Zoning News from Around the Nation ILLINOIS The DeWitt County Zoning Board of Appeals is reportedly looking to amend its wind farm ordinance governing such facilities. Among the changes being considered are the following: adding a requirement that wind farms have aircraft detection lighting systems; lowering the ac- ceptable noise level limit from a turbine from 50 dBA to 37 dBA; set- © 2018 Thomson Reuters 11