Cost of Proposed Jewish School Lawsuit to Evanston: $800K

Even though a Cook County Circuit Court judge ruled that the City of Evanston did not violate laws against religious discrimination by denying an Orthodox Jewish school’s applications for zoning relief, the city still racked up nearly $800,000 in legal expenses, invoices from the case show, Evanston Review reported.

Grant Farrar, the city’s corporation counsel, acknowledge the legal costs were “substantial” but said Evanston was up against two of the biggest law firms in the world, Kirkland & Ellis and JonesDay, adding that the firms used their resources to try and “bury the city in paper,” the newspaper reported.

On April 30, a Cook County Circuit Court judge backed Evanston’s decision not to change zoning that would have permitted an Orthodox Jewish school to open on Hartrey Avenue, which is zoned industrial, according to court documents.

Joan Dachs Bais Yaakov Elementary School was seeking an injunction ordering that the property be used as a school, as well as several millions of dollars in damages under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA).

In their denial of the school's zoning application, Evanston officials argued that by remaining industrial, the five-acre property could potentially generate hundreds of thousands of dollars in tax revenue, if an industrial owner was found for the property. Because the school has tax-exempt status, it would not be a boon to city coffers.

Officials at Joan Dachs Bais Yaakov Elementary School, however, said they couldn’t understand how letting the property stagnate was better than their proposal for a boys school, according to court documents.