By PAULENE POPARAD
This morning The WBEZ Alliance, Inc. doing business as Chicago Public Radio
and Aqua-Land Communications Inc. filed a lawsuit asking a court to overturn
the Porter Board of Zoning Appeals’ Sept. 20 denial of a use variance, and
to require the town to issue a building permit for a FM radio transmission
tower on Aqua-Land’s property.
According to the office of local attorney Michael Harris, whose firm filed
the appeal, the BZA has been given until Nov. 10 by Porter Superior Court
Judge Roger Bradford to respond.
The appeal cites the fact that the BZA failed to adopt findings of fact
related to the petition within five days from the Sept. 20 decision as
required by law and therefore there was no legal basis on which the board
made its decision. Those findings were adopted last night.
The appeal also alleges that the board “considered improper material and
matters outside the record and the evidence presented at the hearing.” In
addition, WBEZ and Aqua-Land alleged that BZA President Bruce Snyder should
have recused himself from the case but instead did hold “himself out as an
expert witness to his other board members, free from challenge or rebuttal
by the applicant.”
Snyder is a certified land appraiser, and the lack of his disclosure
regarding his affiliation with Fairhaven Church also was questioned in the
appeal because it states 22 of 24 individuals signing a petition against the
499-foot radio tower reside in the Fairhaven complex on property owned by
Fairhaven.
Furthermore, according to the lawsuit, citing extended remarks by Snyder
prior to the vote, “All of the Chairman’s rationales were clearly outside
the evidence presented and in fact had no relationship to the evidence
presented.”
The petitioners presented convincing evidence why their variance should have
been granted, according to the lawsuit, and WBEZ and Aqua-Land had obtained
necessary federal permits to construct the tower.
A second count in the lawsuit alleges the petitioners have suffered economic
losses and as such are entitled to have their damages assessed and a
judgment entered in their favor and against the town and the BZA.
Posted 10/19/2006
