Opinion ID: 546272
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Racial animus and the proposed projects

Text: 5 Karagias purchased four acres of vacant land in 1969. Karagias and Reliable Roofing Corporation (Reliable) entered into a buy and sell contract in 1977, which was the first step in what Reliable planned would be the building of rental apartments on the property. However, Reliable was unable to obtain building permits and the contract eventually was rescinded. The complaint alleges that this development fell through because the Village did not want blacks to move into the rental housing. 6 In 1979 Karagias entered into a contract to sell the property to Sylvester. The contract provided that portions of the property would be purchased as the property was developed (take-out basis). The development plan was approved by the Village and called for building thirty single-family homes on the property. Because of financial difficulty, however, Sylvester built only three houses and sold just one. 7 In 1980 Sylvester applied for a building permit to construct one rental apartment building, to be surrounded eventually by a mixture of single-family and apartment buildings. Sylvester never applied for financing of this project, and he had no experience in building or managing apartments. Sylvester claims that no action ever was taken on this plan due to the defendants' desire to limit the influx of blacks. The defendants dispute this conclusion: they claim that the Village's Board of Trustees approved Sylvester's site plan, but that the Village was concerned by Sylvester's suggestion that initially he would build a temporary rather than a permanent road in front of the building. 8 In 1981 Sylvester submitted a plan to construct fourteen six-unit condominium buildings. The plaintiffs claim that the defendants requested voluminous documentation. Appellants' Br. at 11. Sylvester also claims that several of the defendants at two separate dinners in 1982 threatened that he never would get building permits if he planned to rent to blacks or if he did not pay Robert Biederman (another developer and former Village attorney) $30,000 as his portion of a retention pond that would service three developments (Biederman's, Sylvester's, and a third party's). Nevertheless, Sylvester received building permission and actually built four out of the planned sixteen condominium buildings. 9 The defendants assert that any delay experienced by Sylvester was tied to his delinquency in paying special assessment fees. 1 The defendants also claim that approval of development plans followed when Karagias and Sylvester finally paid these assessments. On December 18, 1982, Karagias paid $20,228.88 for his delinquent assessments and for his 1983 assessments. Two days later, one of the building permits for a condominium building was issued. In 1983, when the assessments were up-to-date, two further permits were issued. There was also evidence that the Village was unable to obtain financing for the retention pond (see infra ) because of Karagias' reputation for not paying his special assessments. 10