Court Addresses Fees for Zoning Violations
The Second District Appellate
Court recently considered the fines that a municipality may impose for
violations of a zoning ordinance in the case of City of Kankakee v. Ellington-Snipes.
The controversy began on April
20, 2016, when the city issued a notice of violation to the property owner for various
code violations relating to property maintenance issues. After the property
owner failed to remedy the code violations, the city issued a citation. However, the city subsequently dismissed the
citation without prejudice.
Approximately 10 months later, on
July 20, 2017, the city served the property owner with a lawsuit alleging that
a tent that had been erected on the property violated the city’s zoning
ordinance. The city asked the court for
an injunction and for payment of fines not exceeding $500 per day. The property owner failed to answer the
lawsuit or otherwise appear in court, and the city obtained a default judgment.
The court issued an injunction requiring the property owner to bring the
property into compliance with the zoning ordinance, and assessed fines against
the property owner at $500 per day beginning on April 20, 2016, the date the
city issued the notice of violation for the property maintenance issues. After
the judgment had been entered, the property owner filed a motion to vacate the
judgment, which was denied by the trial court.
On appeal, the property owner
argued that the trial court should have set aside the injunction when he filed
his motion to vacate. The appellate
court, however, found that the property owner had ample time to file an answer or
appearance in response to the city’s lawsuit, and that the property owner had
provided no reasonable excuse for the failure to timely respond. As a result, the
appellate court upheld the injunction requiring compliance with the city’s
zoning ordinance.
However, the appellate court
reduced the amount of fines assessed against the property owner by the trial
court. The appellate court noted that the city’s lawsuit only referenced the
tent that violated the zoning ordinance, and did not include any of the
property maintenance violations that the property owner was previously cited
for. Based on that distinction, the
appellate court found that the fines had been improperly calculated beginning
from the April 20, 2016 notice of violation. Instead, the appellate court
reduced the fines to $500 per day beginning on July 20, 2017, the date that the
property owner was served with the lawsuit for the zoning ordinance violation reducing the $49,500 fine imposed by the trial court to $20,500.
Post Authored by Kurt Asprooth, Ancel Glink
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