Court Opinion

ID: 9712097
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 04:46:20.279747+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:23:09.951261
License: Public Domain

JUSTICE RAPE dissenting: I respectfully dissent. The process of municipal annexation and zoning is a legislative function. As our supreme court has noted: “It is well established that it is primarily the province of the municipal body to determine the use and purpose to which property may be devoted, and it is neither the province nor the duty of the courts to interfere with the discretion with which such bodies are vested unless the legislative action of the municipality is shown to be arbitrary, capricious or unrelated to the public health, safety and morals.” La Salle National Bank v. County of Cook, 12 Ill. 2d 40, 46 (1957). As an administrative body, the board possesses broad discretion in conducting its hearings. See Village of South Elgin v. Pollution Control Board, 64 Ill. App. 3d 565, 568 (1978). The board’s discretion, however, must not be exercised arbitrarily. Wegmann v. Department of Registration & Education, 61 Ill. App. 3d 352, 356 (1978). “All that is necessary is that the procedures be tailored, in light of the decision to be made, to ‘the capacities and circumstances of those who are to be heard’ [citation], to insure that they are given a meaningful opportunity to present their case.” Petersen v. Plan Comm’n, 302 Ill. App. 3d 461, 466 (1998), quoting Mathews v. Eldridge, 424 U.S. 319, 349, 47 L. Ed. 2d 18, 41, 96 S. Ct. 893, 909 (1976). As the court noted in Telcser v. Holzman, 31 Ill. 2d 332, 339 (1964): “[Procedural due process in an administrative proceeding does not require a proceeding in the nature of a judicial proceeding, [citation] but is satisfied by a form of procedure that is suitable and proper to the nature of the determination to be made and conforms to fundamental principles of justice.” Zoning and annexation hearings concern matters related to the public health, safety, and morals and thus are essentially matters of public policy. It is policy decided and promulgated by elected representatives of the inhabitants of a political subdivision. It is my opinion that the board’s role in this case was to conduct a fact-gathering proceeding, not a full adversarial hearing. Accordingly, “ ‘the full panoply of judicial procedure’ does not apply to the fact-finding investigation, including ‘rights of discovery, confrontation, cross-examination, and other elements of due process involved in judicial and quasi-judicial proceedings.’ ” Petersen, 302 Ill. App. 3d at 468, quoting Jabbarri v. Human Rights Comm’n, 173 Ill. App. 3d 227, 233 (1988). The majority’s focus on the definition of the word “hearing” to resolve these issues is, in my opinion, misplaced. The further reliance on E&E Hauling, Inc. v. County of Du Page, 77 Ill. App. 3d 1017 (1979), is also misplaced in that E&E Hauling derives its definition of “hearing” through Braden v. Much, 403 Ill. 507 (1949), which itself relies on Farmers’ Elevator Co. v. Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Ry. Co., 266 Ill. 567 (1915). That is to say that the etymology of the holding in E&E Hauling is Farmers’ Elevator Co., which dealt with the issue of a connection between railroads, wherein the decision effectively caused the transfer of property from one litigant to another, a quasi-judicial process. The requirement of a full due process proceeding was obvious in Farmers’ Elevator Co., diluted in its application in Braden, and even more diluted in E&E Hauling. I do not believe that the phrase “the right to examine the witnesses,” used in E&E Hauling, 77 Ill. App. 3d at 1021, upon which the majority relies to extend the right to cross-examination in zoning and annexation proceedings, is proper in the context of what is essentially a legislative determination. Establishing the proper zoning classification is not a quasi-judicial process. The majority recognizes the need for a process that provides a proper and fair forum for all parties to present their respective positions. I have no quarrel with this, but I see a danger in the various suggestions as to procedures set out by the majority. Too much discretion is allowed the presiding officer. These requirements are best left to the legislature, from which all local zoning authority emanates.