Refiled lakefront lawsuit thrown out

For the second time in a year, a federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit challenging the Village of Winnetka’s recently established lakeside and steep-slope regulations.

U.S. District Court Judge LaShonda Hunt filed her dismissal order on Sept. 1, ruling that the plaintiffs — a group of five lakefront property owners — failed to prove that the Village’s regulations will negatively impact property values and that those regulations are unconstitutional.

As previously reported by The Record, a previous version of the lawsuit was dismissed without prejudice in October 2025, opening the door for an amended complaint, which the plaintiffs filed in December 2025.

The original suit, as also previously reported, called the regulations an “attack” on property rights while alleging 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 complaint requested that the court force a reversal of the Village’s lakefront ordinances or grant the suing property owners appropriate compensation.

In her 2025 dismissal order, Hunt tossed out two of the claims that she ruled irrelevant in a federal court but allowed for a potential refiling of a claim that the Village’s regulations negatively impact property values. An amended complaint, though, had to prove that the new regulations were established and their impact tested.

The plaintiffs’ amended complaint included new claims, including that the Village’s regulations were unconstitutional.

Hunt, in her most-recent dismissal order, ruled that the plaintiffs failed to show “they have yet been deprived of any interest” and only alleged “future theoretical injury” from the Village of Winnetka’s lakefront measures.

She also rejected the claims that those measures were unconstitutional because they were vague and took property away from the plaintiffs.

While dismissing all federal claims with prejudice, Hunt’s ruling allows for the remaining state claims to continue as long as they are refiled by the designated deadline.

A statement Wednesday from the Village reads in part:

“The Village is pleased that the validity of the ordinance has once again been confirmed and remains confident in the fairness of the open and comprehensive process that was used to consider and adopt these important lakefront regulations.

“The Village is hopeful that this litigation is now over and is confident that state law claims would likewise be dismissed. The Village will continue to defend the protection of one of the Village’s most significant assets and continues to invite any resident, including any lakefront property owner, with specific ideas on how to improve the ordinance to submit any recommendations to the Village.”

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