Sycamore Government Affairs

*NEWS*

Update: Click to read: Parks For Kids Agreement

HOMEOWNERS FILE LAW SUIT DEMANDING PARK
DISTRICT BUILD PARKS / STOP ILLEGAL USE OF FEES

Sycamore – One hundred forty six (146) Sycamore homeowners filed suit yesterday demanding that the Sycamore Park District build a park in their community. The homeowners joined together and assigned their rights to the DeKalb County Building & Development Association (DCDBA), a group of local home builders and business people supporting the  construction trades.

“We paid for a park in our community and we should have it,” said Dick Saidat, a  homeowner and self-proclaimed retired taxpayer. “We had to file this law suit now because there won’t be any land or impact fees left at the rate the Park District is going,” explained Saidat. 

Court documents allege that "citizen 'demands' to the City and the Park were made in the spirit of cooperation and assistance to prevent the City and Park from  digging themselves deeper into the hole of misappropriated funds, unavailability of land, and rising land costs in Townsend Woods and Landahl North.”

Senior citizen and resident Saidat said, “The park is not just for the children who  have been playing in the streets. We also need a park for relaxation, a place where  senior citizens can go to and contemplate their future,” Mr. Saidat said with a  laugh.

Local soccer mom and resident of Townsend Woods, Michelle Davis is one of the 146 homeowners who added their names to the suit. “It’s not fair to make the children cross a busy street to go the Community Center. We paid for a park in our community,” said Ms. Davis. “The people in my neighborhood have been paying for park land for 9 years,” she said. “We have been waiting long enough.”

Class Action relief is requested to represent all homeowners who paid the park fee. The suit states: “There are common questions of fact and law that are common to the class which predominate over any questions that may affect any individual member including, but not necessarily limited to, i) whether the Impact Fees are illegal, ii) the amount of Impact Fees paid pursuant to the Impact Fee Ordinance and Impact Fee Schedule, iii) whether the CITY and PARK DISTRICT are now obligated to acquire park land with the Impact Fees, iv) whether to cease the expenditure of Impact Fees for operating expenses, and, v) whether to replace the $138,750.86 Impact Fees spent for operating expenses;”

“Nine years is way too long to let public money sit idle in a public account,” said Brian Grainger, President of the DeKalb County Building & Development Association. The park is obviously not acting in the best interest of the people who paid their fees. It’s easy to see that land prices just keep going up,” said Grainger. We had to bring a taxpayer law suit to help the homeowners get their park and stop the use of one-time fees for operating expenses,” he explained.

Count V of the suit is a Taxpayer Lawsuit stating “This action is being prosecuted by Homeowners who are also citizens and taxpayers of the State of Illinois. … to restrain and enjoin the defendant or defendants from disbursing the public funds of the State.

“The Park should have purchased park land years ago when prices were lower. If they wait any longer the land will be too expensive and the people in Townsend Woods and Landahl North may never get a park,” said Grainger.  

“I think the residents should be outraged,” said Michael Dorrance, a homebuilder from Elgin who heard of the suit this morning. Not only has the homeowner paid a $1,000 fee for park land, but the $1,000 is added to the cost of the house. So, each year the homeowner pays additional property taxes on the $1,000 fee. It’s the gift that keeps on giving and the people still don’t have a park,” Dorrance said.

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