School district sues city over allowing development... :?

The city and its planning board have broad discretion to zone property for either residential or commercial purposes.

This is not a matter of 380 MORE students that the city must educate, it's merely a matter of building new homes that are available for people (parents included) to buy -- the students already exist. The school system must accomodate all students who currently reside in the City or will relocate to the City. Depriving them of housing won't decrease the demand for housing nor decrease the demand on public education.

The new residential housing development supplies the citizens of the city with new housing (based upon an existing demand) and a new property tax base. Kids are born and they need to be both housed and educated. Like it or not, housing developments in growing communities have to placed somewhere!

I don't think the school district has a leg to stand on . . . its case ought to be thrown out of court.

Perhaps it's b/c of the projected growth rate being so high... http://www.stfrancis.edu/visitors/joliet.htm

Can any county seriously plan ahead for that sort of growth? I'm not sure... And apparently there isn't funding for any new schools available whle the exisiting schools are overcrowded... Someone pointed me to that case and said it was worth watching b/c of how its outcome would affect other school districts approach to a national problem...

Here's another article on the lawsuit. http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/heraldnews/top/j13funding.htm

I don't get it. All property owners have to pay a school tax here even if they have no kids. There's also an impact fee of $1,400 for every home built that is dedicated to the school system. Wouldn't that negate the need for the system to sue the zoning board?

Interesting. Seems kinda backward to me. Here, developers aren't allowed to build til they can establish that the local systems can accomodate what they're planning. Roads, sewers, lighting, police, fire ... That includes no new houses unless, and until, the school board is prepared for more kids in a particular area. I think it's leftover legislation from the baby boom days.