Opinion ID: 2003432
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Count III of the Cook County Complaint

Text: The Pollution Control Board and Illinois Environmental Protection Agency are charged by the General Assembly with implementing the Environmental Protection Act. The Pollution Control Board establishes environmental standards and regulations and also adjudicates enforcement matters. (415 ILCS 5/5 (West 1992).) The Agency considers and applies these regulations in a variety of contexts, including its decisions to issue development and operation permits for pollution control facilities such as the instant balefill. (415 ILCS 5/4 (West 1992).) Only after an applicant such as SWANCC proves that a facility will not cause a violation of the Act or of the regulations can the Agency issue a development permit. (415 ILCS 5/39 (West 1992); 35 Ill.Adm.Code § 807.101 et seq. (1994).) To assist it in its evaluations, the Agency employs a staff of experts from various disciplines to consider and monitor, inter alia, air, noise and water pollution as well as groundwater quality. Significantly, plaintiffs are statutorily precluded from legally challenging the Agency's decision to grant a development permit for a pollution control facility. [2] An Agency decision granting a permit cannot be appealed to the Pollution Control Board, which is only authorized to hear appeals where the Agency denies a permit or grants only a conditional permit. (415 ILCS 5/40(a)(1) (West 1992).) Further, the Act only authorizes judicial review of Pollution Control Board permitting decisions, and not Agency permitting decisions. (415 ILCS 5/41(a) (West 1992).) Consequently, judicial review of Agency decisions granting development permits for solid waste disposal sites is precluded and the instant plaintiffs cannot challenge the Agency's decision to grant the balefill development permit. Yet, what the plaintiff municipalities cannot do directly they attempt to do indirectly through their complaint challenging the Cook County board's zoning ordinance authorizing the siting and development of the balefill. Count III of the plaintiff municipalities' complaint is titled Failure of the Proposed Plan to Meet Standards For Preliminary PUD Plat Approval, and alleges that the Cook County board's ordinance approving the siting of the balefill was arbitrary, capricious and unreasonable. The matters complained of in count III can be divided into three general categories: (1) Cook County's failure to abide by its own ordinances in approving the balefill; (2) Cook County's abdication of its responsibility to consider the deleterious environmental impact of the proposed balefill in that it conditioned its approval on the issuance of an Agency development permit; and (3) the deleterious environmental and economic impact of the balefill to the plaintiff municipalities in their corporate capacity. Our consideration of count III leads us to conclude that the circuit court was correct in dismissing count III with prejudice.
Count III alleges in large part that Cook County failed to follow various of its own ordinances in approving the balefill ordinance. Even if this were true, however, plaintiffs could not successfully challenge Cook County's balefill ordinance. In evaluating the balefill ordinance, we must keep in mind the broad powers of home rule units of government such as Cook County. Article VII, section 6(a), of the Illinois Constitution of 1970 provides in pertinent part: Except as limited by this Section, a home rule unit may exercise any power and perform any function pertaining to its government and affairs including, but not limited to, the power to regulate for the protection of the public health, safety, morals and welfare   . (Ill. Const.1970, art. VII, § 6(a).) Moreover, article VII, section 6(m), provides that the powers and functions of home rule powers are to be construed broadly. Ill. Const.1970, art. VII, § 6(m). Indeed, this court has concluded that home rule units have all the powers of the sovereign, limited only by the constitution itself and the General Assembly. ( City of Urbana v. Houser (1977), 67 Ill.2d 268, 273, 10 Ill.Dec. 239, 367 N.E.2d 692.) From this it follows that, [t]his court cannot handle matters which in effect are attempts to overrule decisions of a legislative body based upon alleged failure to follow requirements imposed by that body on itself.    We have authority to invalidate legislation    only upon grounds that the enactment violates a provision of the Federal or State constitutions or violates the mandate of a State or Federal statute. ( Landmarks Preservation Council of Illinois v. City of Chicago (1988), 125 Ill.2d 164, 179, 125 Ill.Dec. 830, 531 N.E.2d 9, citing Chirikos v. Yellow Cab Co. (1980), 87 Ill.App.3d 569, 574, 43 Ill. Dec. 61, 410 N.E.2d 61.) (Accord In re Application of the County Collector of Kane County (1989), 132 Ill.2d 64, 74-75, 138 Ill.Dec. 138, 547 N.E.2d 107 (failure of home rule unit to comply with its own ordinance fatal only if said ordinance is mandatory).) Thus, insofar as plaintiffs have not alleged any violation of an applicable statute or constitutional provision, the trial court was correct in dismissing, with prejudice, the portions of count III alleging injury resulting from Cook County's alleged failure to comply with its own ordinances in approving the balefill ordinance.
Count III further alleges injuries resulting from the Cook County board's abdication of its responsibility to consider the deleterious environmental impact of the proposed balefill where, instead of conducting its own environmental studies, it granted a preliminary permit conditioned upon the Agency's approval and issuance of a development permit. In support, the plaintiff municipalities cite to section 39(c) of the Act, which mandates that county boards approve the siting of solid waste facilities in unincorporated portions of their counties. 415 ILCS 5/39(c) (West 1992). The Act was amended in 1981 to require local government siting approval as a precondition to the issuance of an Agency permit. (415 ILCS 5/39(c) (West 1992).) Prior to the amendment, this court had ruled that zoning ordinances of non-home-rule units of local government related to facilities governed under the Act were preempted by the Act. (See County of Cook v. John Sexton Contractors Co. (1979), 75 Ill.2d 494, 514-15, 27 Ill.Dec. 489, 389 N.E.2d 553.) The amendment overruled this decision and made clear all units of local government, home rule and non-home-rule alike, have concurrent jurisdiction with the Agency in approving siting, because section 39(c) now requires local government approval of all proposed pollution control facilities. This concurrent jurisdiction, however, does not require that the Cook County board act as a local environmental protection agency in considering a proposed site, thus duplicating the exhaustive efforts of the Agency in assessing the environmental impact of a proposed pollution control facility. In their contrary argument, the plaintiff municipalities point to section 39.2(a) of the Act, which sets forth exclusive siting requirements that local units of government must consider in deciding whether to approve the siting of a pollution control facility. However, Cook County is specifically exempted from this and all other siting provisions of section 39.2 by section 39.2(h) (415 ILCS 5/39.2(h) (West 1992) ([n]othing in this Section shall apply to any    new    pollution control facility located within an unincorporated area of any county having a population of over 3,000,000)). Thus, while nothing precludes the Cook County board from considering the section 39.2(a) siting factors, all the Act requires the board to consider is whether, in its judgment, the waste facility should be placed on the proposed site. (415 ILCS 5/39(c) (West 1992).) This the Cook County board did. That the Cook County board further chose to rely upon the Agency's environmental expertise in conditioning its final PUD permit on Agency approval is in no way an abdication or delegation of its duty under section 39(c), which does not require that Cook County consider such matters in the first place. Thus, we conclude that the circuit court was correct in dismissing count III of the complaint to the extent it was premised upon any section 39(c) abdication-of-duty theory.
The final category of harm alleged in count III is that the approval of the balefill was arbitrary, capricious and unreasonable in that the balefill will harm the environment and cause economic injury to the plaintiff municipalities. As regards the alleged damage to the environment, we hold that these allegations constitute an impermissible collateral attack on the Agency development permit approving the balefill. (See 415 ILCS 5/40(a)(1) (West 1992).) Though the plaintiff municipalities contend that they are not attacking the Agency's decision to grant the permit but, rather, the Cook County board's zoning ordinance granting the permit, this distinction does not withstand scrutiny. As noted earlier, the decision of the Agency to grant a development permit is appealable neither to the Pollution Control Board nor to our State courts. (415 ILCS 5/40(a)(1) (West 1992).) In approving the instant zoning ordinance, the Cook County board conditioned its approval on the Agency's issuance of a development permit, a reliance entirely consistent with the Act's goal of uniformity in establishing a statewide agency with the technical expertise to uniformly apply rules and regulations to safeguard the environment. (415 ILCS 5/2(b) (West 1992).) Thus, we conclude that the Cook County board's environmental assessments, to the extent they are dependent upon the Agency's expertise and issuance of a development permit, far from being arbitrary, capricious or unreasonable, are entirely appropriate and not subject to attack in the courts of our State. Secondly, the plaintiff municipalities assert that the balefill ordinance is arbitrary, capricious and unreasonable because the plaintiff municipalities will be economically injured by the balefill. In support the complaint alleges, inter alia, that the balefill will lead to more traffic, which will cause increased road maintenance and traffic control expenditures and that the balefill will diminish or impair property values such that there will be a decrease in property tax revenues. [3] The appellate court found that these alleged economic injuries, in conjunction with the environmental allegations discussed above, were sufficient to confer standing to challenge the Cook County zoning ordinance approving the balefill. In support, it cited this court's decisions in Village of Barrington Hills v. Village of Hoffman Estates (1980), 81 Ill.2d 392, 396-97, 43 Ill.Dec. 37, 410 N.E.2d 37, and City of Hickory Hills v. Village of Bridgeview (1977), 67 Ill.2d 399, 402-03, 10 Ill.Dec. 539, 367 N.E.2d 1305, which held that a municipality has standing to sue another municipality over its zoning decisions where it has a real interest in the controversy, the test being whether the municipality will suffer a direct and adverse injury. Because the injuries alleged in count III are similar to those deemed sufficient to confer standing in Village of Barrington Hills, the appellate court concluded that the plaintiff municipalities had standing to challenge the balefill ordinance. We disagree. Initially, we observe that the zoning decisions in City of Hickory Hills and Village of Barrington Hills did not involve the siting of a solid waste disposal facility and did not otherwise implicate the Illinois Environmental Protection Act. Thus, those zoning decisions were not subject to the host of environmental regulations and agency reviews mandated by the Act. This distinction, coupled with our review of the history and pertinent portions of the Act, leads us to conclude that the instant plaintiff municipalities lack standing to challenge Cook County's balefill ordinance. In adopting the Act, our legislature intended to address the environmental problems of the State on a unified statewide basis. (415 ILCS 5/2(a)(ii) (West 1992).) This goal of unified statewide enforcement extends to, inter alia, air and water pollution, noise, public water supply and, not insignificantly, solid waste disposal. (415 ILCS 5/2(a)(iii) (West 1992).) In furtherance of this goal, the Act was amended in 1981 to require local government approval of pollution control sites as a precondition to the issuance of an Agency development permit. (415 ILCS 5/39(c) (West 1992).) The 1981 amendments to the Act also provided an exclusive list of criterion that local units of government must consider in deciding whether to approve the proposed siting of a pollution control facility. (415 ILCS 5/39.2(a)(i) through (a)(ix) (West 1992).) Additionally, the 1981 amendments provide that local government decisions approving the siting of pollution control facilities are appealable to the Pollution Control Board. (415 ILCS 5/40.1(b) (West 1992).) Any party adversely affected by a final order or determination of the Pollution Control Board may appeal directly to the appellate court, bypassing the circuit court. 415 ILCS 5/41(a) (West 1992). If the application and review scheme outlined above were applicable to the instant case, the plaintiff municipalities could only have appealed the Cook County siting ordinance to the Pollution Control Board. (415 ILCS 5/40.1(b) (West 1992).) If the Pollution Control Board were then to affirm the Cook County siting ordinance, the plaintiff municipalities arguably would not have any right to further appeals to the courts of this State. While section 40.1(b) authorizes third-party objectors to appeal county board siting decisions to the Pollution Control Board, it is unclear whether these third parties are parties with standing to appeal adverse Pollution Control Board decisions to the appellate court pursuant to section 41(a)(1). (See 415 ILCS 5/39.2(g), 40.1(b), 41(a)(1) (West 1992).) If not, appeals by third-party objectors such as the instant plaintiff municipalities would not lie beyond the Pollution Control Board insofar as section 41(a)(1) is the sole section authorizing judicial review. However, though illustrative of the potentially limited review procedures contemplated by the legislature when it amended the Act to require local siting approval, the application and review scheme delineated above is not applicable to the instant case. While Cook County must approve the siting of pollution control facilities pursuant to section 39(c) of the Act, it is otherwise exempted from the siting criteria of section 39.2 by section 39.2(h) (415 ILCS 5/39.2(h) (West 1992)). Thus, there can be no appeal of Cook County siting decisions to the Pollution Control Board insofar as appeals thereto lie only from siting decisions made pursuant to section 39.2, from which Cook County is exempt. (415 ILCS 5/40.1(b) (West 1992).) Likewise, the judicial review provisions of section 41(a)(1), which authorize appeals to the appellate court, are also inapplicable to the instant case given that judicial review is only contemplated for party appeals from adverse siting decisions of the Pollution Control Board. 415 ILCS 5/41(a) (West 1992). Unfortunately, while section 39.2(h) exempts Cook County from the siting and review provisions found in the Act, it does not indicate whether Cook County board siting decisions are otherwise subject to review and, if so, by what body and pursuant to what standards. (415 ILCS 5/39.2(h) (West 1992).) Likewise, our review of the legislative history surrounding the adoption of the Cook County board exemption sheds no light on this issue. Fortunately, however, the underlying purpose of the Act does provide some guidance in determining whether Cook County board siting decisions are reviewable. As noted earlier, the Act is intended to facilitate the creation of a uniform statewide environmental policy. (415 ILCS 5/2(a)(iii), (b) (West 1992).) Part of this policy necessarily entails the establishment and regulation of environmentally sound pollution control facilities such as the instant balefill, for while recycling efforts are becoming more common, the fact remains that the efficient disposal of municipal waste is an increasingly serious problem in Illinois. See 415 ILCS 5/2 (West 1992) (legislative declaration). Given the pressing need for pollution control facilities, the Act encourages the development of environmentally sound facilities through the establishment of a uniform, statewide environmental policy dealing with such facilities. (See 415 ILCS 5/2(a)(iii) (West 1992).) With this goal in mind, it would be anomalous to allow third parties such as the instant plaintiff municipalities to challenge local zoning ordinances authorizing the siting of regional pollution control facilities. This is particularly so where the applicant is a municipal joint-action agency established pursuant to the Intergovernmental Cooperation Act and with the express purpose of developing a waste management plan for northern Cook County. 5 ILCS 220/3.2 (West 1992). Indeed, if extraterritorial challenges by third-party municipalities are allowed in the courts of this State, it is unlikely that any significant landfill, regardless of how necessary and environmentally sound, will ever again be developed in Illinois. [4] As evidenced in the instant case, no matter where a landfill is sited, neighboring units of local government not participating in the landfill's development will typically employ their considerable legal arsenals to prevent indefinitely the development of such facilities. [5] Thus, where the appropriate unit of local government approves the siting of a pollution control facility pursuant to section 39(c), and that facility is contained solely within that unit's own geographic boundaries, we hold that extraterritorial third-party challenges to these siting decisions to the courts of this State are incompatible with the purposes of the Act. Our conclusion is further bolstered by our consideration of section 31 of the Act, which authorizes various persons to file enforcement actions against persons who violate environmental regulations. Section 31(a) allows the Agency to initiate an enforcement action. (415 ILCS 5/31(a) (West 1992).) Section 31(b) is broader and grants any person the right to file a complaint with the Pollution Control Board against any person allegedly violating the Act. (415 ILCS 5/31(b) (West 1992).) Moreover, to protect against inaction by the Pollution Control Board or the Agency, the legislative scheme permits State's Attorneys and the Attorney General to file civil actions, authorizing them to seek injunctive relief where necessary. (415 ILCS 5/43(a) (West 1992).) Likewise, persons who file a section 31(b) complaint with the Pollution Control Board but who are not satisfied with the results can appeal to the circuit court. (415 ILCS 5/45(b) (West 1992).) Thus, it is clear that if at any point the balefill actually threatens the environment, as contended in many of the in futuro allegations of the Cook County complaint, adequate safeguards are provided to, at that point, stop any further development and/or operation of the balefill. (See Stark v. Pollution Control Board (1988), 177 Ill.App.3d 293, 126 Ill.Dec. 624, 532 N.E.2d 309.) In the interim, however, we conclude that local ordinances approving the siting of a pollution control facility pursuant to section 39(c) are not subject to extraterritorial challenges by other units of local government.