An effort by Flossmoor resident Crystal Cleggett and some of her neighbors to stop construction on a storm water detention basin near Heather Hill School suffered a setback during a Cook County Circuit Court hearing on Wednesday, July 17.
According to her attorney, Douglas Cipriano, Circuit Court Judge Sophia Hall denied his client’s emergency motion for a temporary restraining order.
Cipriano had successfully argued for an expedited process. During the first hearing on July 9, Hall set the next hearing for Aug. 8 because she wanted more time to study the exhibits submitted in the case, he said.
He was able to get the second hearing moved to Wednesday. In a motion to hold the second hearing earlier, Cipriano noted that the basin is under construction: “The size of this hole only increases with each day that action is delayed.”
Construction began in mid-June and major earth work is expected to be completed by Aug. 15, before school begins.
Now, the future of the effort to stop the project is uncertain.
“The court did not find that the facts could support the legal argument for emergency relief,” Cipriano said. “Instead, the plaintiffs will need to proceed with their claims through the pleading and discovery phases, unless we can develop facts sufficient to support another hearing for injunctive relief.”
The next hearing is scheduled to be held Aug. 8.
The basin is being built to temporarily store storm water diverted from the downtown viaduct and the Berry Lane neighborhood to reduce the risk of flooding. Village officials have said the basin is expected to be dry about 99% of the time, and when it fills with water it is designed to empty out in about nine hours.
Some Heather Hill residents and parents with students who attend the school have objected to the creation of the basin, citing safety concerns. Residents have spoken out, pro and con, for the past several months at village, School District 161 and Homewood-Flossmoor Park District board meetings.