Feds Want Audio Of Closed Meetings On Nixed Tinley Apartment Plan

TINLEY PARK, IL — A federal judge will determine whether the U.S Department of Justice can listen to audio recordings of several closed-door executive sessions from 2016 that dealt with a proposed, affordable housing project. The Justice Department's request stems from the agency's ongoing lawsuit against the Village of Tinley Park over The Reserve, an unsuccessful attempt to build a 47-unit apartment complex for low-income residents at Oak Park Avenue and 183rd Street.

Tinley Park officials have kept these recorded discussions from the feds, arguing that the talks fall under attorney-client privilege because the village's lawyer was on hand for the five sessions in question, according to the Daily Southtown. The Justice Department, however, disputes the village's claims that the privilege offers a blanket protection for everything discussed at these times, the report added.

U.S. District Court Judge Sara Ellis will now privately read transcripts of the sessions — which happened between February and March in 2016 — by Thursday, June 7, before making her ruling. Another hearing is set for June 20.

More Patch Coverage:

• Tinley Park Mired in Legal Mess over Apartment Complex
  
• Justice Dept Sues Tinley Park, Claims Village Violated Fair Housing Act
• Feds Asked Tinley Park To Admit It Has History Of Racist Acts: Filing
  
• Village Settles Lawsuit With Buckeye Community Hope Foundation
• Tinley Park Wants Federal Lawsuit Tossed
  
• Tinley Park Sues Former Planning Director

The Justice Department filed its request for the recordings last week after it couldn't reach an agreement with the village. Both sides have been embroiled in legal proceedings connected to The Reserve for nearly two years.

In April 2016, the developers of The Reserve, the Buckeye Community Hope Foundation, sued the village after a Plan Commission vote on the ill-fated project was put on hold. The village and the foundation eventually settled the case out of court, and Buckeye withdrew its plans to build The Reserve.

But that wasn't the end of Tinley's legal issues concerning the project. In November of that same year, the Justice Department sued the village over the project, claiming officials broke federal fair housing laws by not approving the development.

According to the lawsuit, the proposal drew public opposition from residents who thought the village was intentionally keeping the project out of the spotlight until it had made its way almost entirely through the approval process. The Justice Department's complaint also alleges that the opposition was fueled by "discriminatory attitudes toward African-Americans and other groups based on race,” which led to the proposal's defeat. Village officials, however, refute claims that their actions were illegally discriminatory.

Other legal action connected with The Reserve project concerns a lawsuit filed by Tinley Park against Amy Connolly, the village's former planning director who was an instrumental part of the project's evaluation. That complaint accuses Connolly of mishandling the process, and she was suspended two weeks after the Plan Commission vote on The Reserve was tabled.

Connolly stepped down from her village post two years ago and now works in Racine, Wisconsin, as that community's city development director. The village's lawsuit against her continues, and Ellis is the presiding judge in that case, too.

More via the Daily Southtown

An artist's rendering of The Reserve, a failed proposal fora 47-unit apartment complex for low-income residents (Image via Village of Tinley Park | Patch archive)