Judge Issues Court Order Against Village in Zoning Dispute

Bolingbrook must remove the no occupancy signs it placed on the property a local church is looking to move into and act quickly to get that church up and running, a court order handed down by a federal judge said Thursday.

The temporary restraining order, signed by U.S. Judge Harry Leinenweber, means Bolingbrook has two weeks to inspect the Bolingbrook Commons property that Liberty Temple Full Gospel Church of Bolingbrook is seeking to move into.

If the village doesn’t, the church will be able to operate without passing any such inspection.

The court order stems from a , which alleged Bolingbrook officials discriminated against church officials' efforts to relocate to a long-vacant space inside the shopping center near Interstate 55 and Route 53.

The case was essentially a matter of one’s interpretation of the village’s zoning map.

Church officials said the space was classified as B-4 commercial urban development, which would allow a church to exist in the shopping center. Village officials contended the property was classified as B-2 community retail, which prohibits churches and places of worship without a special use permit.

The confusion, basically, resulted from the color-coding scheme of the village’s map—B-1 through B-4 classified zones are all shaded orange and only bold lines outlining certain zones signified a change in zoning.

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“If I looked at this, I would just assume it’s B-4,” Leinenweber said. “It’s pretty clear there is no black line.”

James Boan, the village attorney, said any such strategy or further action would not be made immediately available to the public.