By Vincent Bradshaw and Matt PresserThe Daily Northwestern
If Northwestern and Evanston officials don’t come to an agreement about a parcel of NU’s property that the city is interested in using, it is possible for the city to take it from the university through eminent domain, two local lawyers said.
Eugene Sunshine, NU’s vice president of business and finance, told The DAILY last week that the city approached him more than a year ago about the land as the potential new home for the city’s aging Civic Center. They’ve been involved in talks ever since.
The land in question, near the intersection of Emerson Street and Maple Avenue, is currently used as a parking lot by NU administrators and is also the site for the city’s weekly farmers’ market.
Word about the possibility of the city using eminent domain to take the land came about only in the last couple of weeks when city officials threatened to use it, Sunshine said.
Eminent domain refers to the right of any government to acquire private property, as long as the land will be for public use.
In exchange for the land, the city must compensate the land owner by paying for the value of the land at the time of the suit. Compensation can be either in money or in something of equal value, such as property.
Barry Rosenbloom, a lawyer in Buffalo Grove, said eminent domain could be a possibility in this instance.
“Basically, when a municipality decides it needs a piece of property,” he said, “the law requires that they pay fair market value.”
But one concern of university officials is finding adequate compensation. Even if the school received money equal to the property’s value, it would have trouble finding land with the same zoning allowances and other “values” the current space gives them.
Despite talks of eminent domain, the actual process, if invoked, could take years, said Skokie lawyer Barry Springer.
According to Springer, such a case could take three years to come to trial, and property values could change during that time.
“This is something that is not atypical,” he said. “There are roads that need to be built, and there are always schools that need to be built. Where do you put the buildings? You’ve got to have land.”
Rosenbloom said that these cases usually arrive at a compromise, but that this situation seems to be a valid use of eminent domain powers.
“If the current facilities are inadequate,” he said, “that’s the kind of thing that a municipality is going to have the power to do.”
A citizens group called Northwestern Neighbors distributed a flyer last weekend titled “Neighborhood Alert,” in which they cited concerns about the university swapping the parking lot for a zoning change on Sheridan Road that would allow NU to build new classrooms and dormitories.
Al Cubbage, NU’s vice president of university relations, told The DAILY last week that school officials have brought up the idea with the city but had received no response about the alternative option.
Neighbors such as Mike Hendershot said building new dorms in this area could take away from the neighborhood’s value.
“We understand that Northwestern does have some land problems,” he said.
“They want to have a larger campus, I can certainly empathize with that. But I’m not going to compromise the value of my home for them to do that.”
Reach Vincent Bradshaw at [email protected] and Matt Presser at [email protected].
