Seil Road Bridge Lawsuit: Shorewood In Battle With 1 Landowner

SHOREWOOD, IL —In May, Patch reported Shorewood's Seil Road Bridge will remain a one-lane-only bridge as Shorewood's ambitious plans to build a new stronger two-lane span over the DuPage River are in the eminent domain phase. Last week, Joliet Patch discovered the village of Shorewood has filed its condemnation lawsuit at the Will County Courthouse against Lawrence J. Pubentz.

Pubentz has remained a holdout, he has opted not accept the village's financial offer of purchasing a portion of his property along Seil Road. His property in question is located in the 24000 block of Seil Road, according to the Will County Recorder of Deeds. According to court records, on April 28, Pubentz's traverse and notice to dismiss Shorewood's condemnation lawsuit were rejected by the judge. The case is set for a status hearing on June 18 in Courtroom 905.

According to Shorewood's lawsuit against Pubentz, the village is authorized to acquire property by eminent domain under Illinois Municipal Code "to, among other things, construct bridges.

"The village desires to construct improvements to widen and improve Seil Road and to construct a new bridge across the DuPage River at Seil Road including storm water requirements and all associated right of way improvements," argues James Murphy, one of the village of Shorewood lawyers, who comes from Mahoney, Silverman and Cross in Joliet.

Shorewood's lawsuit indicates that a village ordinance "has determined that is in the public interest to complete the improvements and that the acquisition of fee title for one parcel of property and two temporary construction easements for a term of five years are necessary to construct and complete the improvements."

According to Shorewood's lawsuit, Lawrence Pubentz is owner of the property and "the village has negotiated in good faith with the trust, the trustee and representatives of the trust and has been unable to reach an agreement as to compensation to be paid by the village to the owner of the property. The village has prepared a formal appraisal of the property which was provided to the trustee and that the good faith offer of compensation to the trust was in excess of the amount for which the property was appraised."

Shorewood's lawsuit informed Will County's judges that "the appraisal was reviewed by a review appraiser. After its offer, the village continued to negotiate in good faith with the trustee to reach an agreement. The trust was provided with a letter advising that if an agreement was not reached within 60 days, the property would be acquired by eminent domain."

According to Shorewood's lawsuit, the parcels to be acquired as temporary construction easements are the 0.034 acre easement and the .068 acre easement.

The condemnation lawsuit against Pubentz asks that a judge from Will County determine the compensation to be paid by Shorewood to acquire the title of the property and "grant to the village temporary construction easements for a period of five years for the .034 acre parcel and the 0.068 acre parcel."