Chapter 27 Form of Complaint and Answer

• Library: The Zoning and Land Use Handbook (ABA) (2016 Ed.)

Chapter 27 Form of Complaint and Answer

A. Answer in Administrative Review

It is important to note in an administrative review proceeding that, under the Administrative Review Law, the record before the administrative body is to be filed as the answer in that action.¹ Indeed, the failure to have a complete record and an effort to complete the record by filing as part of the answer certain additional findings of fact will result in the answer being stricken. The administrative body can lose its case if a proper record is not filed.²

B. Complaint

1. Elements in Complaint

Typically, a zoning complaint alleges the ownership and location of the subject property by the plaintiff, the zoning classification of the tract and the nature of the restriction, the character of the neighboring area, the exhaustion of local remedies, impairment of the value of the subject property by reason of the zoning restrictions, and a concluding allegation that the plaintiff is being unconstitutionally deprived of the value of his property without due process of law in contravention of both federal and state constitutions.

2. Allegations Regarding Comprehensive Planning

The increasing emphasis on comprehensive planning as an essential underpinning of the zoning process suggests that if a municipality has not based its zoning ordinance on a comprehensive plan, the complaint should allege that fact. Although the Illinois municipal zoning enabling statute does not require, as does the enabling legislation in many states, that the zoning ordinance be in accordance with a comprehensive plan,³ the courts are becoming aware that, to avoid arbitrariness, zoning must be based on careful planning by the community.⁴

In First National Bank of Highland Park v. Village of Vernon Hills,⁵ however, the Illinois appellate court held that the village's zoning ordinance was entitled to a presumption of validity despite the fact that the village had not adopted a comprehensive plan.

3. Allegations Regarding Need or Demand for Requested Classification

An additional allegation that may be appropriate in some types of zoning cases is a claim that there is a need or demand in the community involved for the particular classification or use that the property owner has in mind.⁶ For example, a complaint alleging the unreasonableness of a zoning ordinance that prohibited apartments on the plaintiff's property might allege that there was a scarcity of multiple-family housing available in the community and that...