Judge dismisses Winnetka property owners’ lawsuit challenging lakefront regulations

Litigation filed by a group of lakefront property owners in Winnetka is in troubled waters after a recent ruling from a local judge.

Peter Friedman, Winnetka’s village attorney, announced Oct. 7 that Judge LaShonda Hunt of the Federal District Court in Chicago granted the village’s motion to dismiss a lawsuit filed against the town in May of 2024.

The suit was dismissed without prejudice, meaning the complainants have an opportunity to adjust and refile their claim.

As previously reported by The Record, the lawsuit challenged Winnetka’s lakefront building, construction and steep slope protection regulations that the Village Council passed in February of that year.

The lawsuit called the regulations an “attack” on property rights while it also alleged that the village’s ordinance “deprives Plaintiffs and other lakefront property owners in Winnetka of the value, use, and enjoyment of their bluffs and the lakefront properties for which they paid substantial sums.”

The suit also claimed that the village cost lakefront property owners tens of millions of dollars — “beyond Winnetka’s ability to pay” — in property values.

At the time of the lawsuit’s filing, the group of property owners asked the court to force a reversal of the ordinance or grant the suing property owners appropriate compensation.

Hunt, who focused on the second of three counts in the claim, ruled that Counts 1 and 3 in the suit were not considered because they lacked federal relevancy.

According to a statement released by the village earlier this month, Hunt “explicitly rejected the plaintiffs’ claims that the Village’s ordinance constituted an unconstitutional taking of their properties.”

Friedman also said during the village council’s Oct. 7 meeting that Hunt found the suit’s sole federal claim “was not ripe and could not be brought at this time.”

In her dismissal order, Hunt opines that the Village of Winnetka’s regulations must first be established and tested and the plaintiffs had no applications or plans under Village review. She cited Palazzolo v. Rhode Island’s finding that “important principle that a landowner may not establish a taking before a land-use authority has the opportunity, using its own reasonable procedures, to decide and explain the reach of a challenged regulation.”

Winnetka trustees in early 2023 first began exploring added shoreline regulations and protections. The council, for much of 2023, continually held related discussions and even voted to establish a moratorium on new lakefront construction as they worked through the process, The Record previously reported.

Those conversations were in large part sparked by the Ishbia family’s plans to combine four large properties along the lakefront to build an enormous home plus amenities. At the time, neighbors detailed several concerns about the project and how it would impact the bluff and future development along the lake.

After months of careful consideration and heated public discussions, the council ultimately approved steep slope regulations that were closely modeled after measures in neighboring Glencoe, which creates zones for each lot that are based on each individual slope, and not a required measurement. Kenilworth and Highland Park also maintain bluff regulations.

According to Friedman, Hunt allowed the plaintiffs until Oct. 30 to amend their complaint to state a valid claim.

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