Parking Contradictions: Owner Says La Grange Broke 2005 Pact

LA GRANGE, IL – In recent years, La Grange and a commercial property owner both claimed they had the right to regulate parking along a local street.

They settled the matter last month.

At issue were the perpendicular parking spots along Washington Avenue, south of Cossitt Avenue.

A few years ago, the village posted a sign limiting parking to four hours.

But the commercial property owner had signs informing drivers that the parking was private and that violators would be towed.

In 2020, the village sued the property owner, Tadd Christensen, as trustee of the Beverly Christensen Trust.

La Grange claimed several code violations, including the signs asserting the parking spots were private. The village said the spaces were in its right-of-way.

In his response, Christensen said Patrick Benjamin, the village's former community development director, and its former public works director, Robert, with an unknown last name, approached the trust with an offer.

The officials said the trust could have exclusive use of the parking if it paid for paving the spots and adding a sidewalk, Christensen said.

With La Grange's promise, the trust said it spent about $30,000 on the improvements. Given the time that has passed, the trust said it no longer had paper records of the transactions with the contractor.

The trust's tenants enjoyed uninterrupted use of the parking spaces for the better part of two decades until the village posted signage.

In the response, Christensen called for the Cook County Circuit Court to prevent the village from ticketing parking violators in the spaces.

In March, the Village Board settled the 5-year-old litigation. That agreement is effective once the property owner removes all signs claiming control of the spots.

The owner agreed not to interfere with village's signage.

Patch left messages for comment on Wednesday with the village and Christensen's Westchester-based lawyer, Daniel D'Attomo.