Court Backs Evanston’s Decision Over Proposed Jewish School

A Cook County Circuit Court judge recently backed the City of 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. 

The school currently operates a boys school and a girls school in separate locations the city of Chicago, but hoped to expand its boys school and early childhood education program when it purchased the property at 222 Hartrey St. in 2007. The property is zoned I2, a classification that permits light industry and manufacturing, but not schools, even as a special use. 

Ari Shulman, who was president of Joan Dachs in 2007, contacted Evanston Ald. Ann Rainey about the property shortly after the purchase, since it is located in her ward, according to court documents. Shulman alleges that Rainey told him "Keep your Jewish school on California. You'll get a zoning change over my dead body," according to court documents. Rainey, however, denies that she made the statement, although she says she did oppose a zoning change.

Joan Dachs first applied to the city for a zoning change as a religious institution, rather than a school. At the time, religious institutions were allowed in the I2 district as a special use, with a religious school as an accessory use, according to court documents. City officials denied the request, arguing that the school was a primary, rather than accessory use. 

The school came back with an application to build the school as a "unique use," a zoning category designed to allow uses that do not fit into the code for a specific site, but will provide substantial economic benefit to the city, according to court documents. A few months later, Joan Dachs submitted an application for the city to amend the map and change the zoning code to allow a school, withdrawing the "unique use" application.

In 2008, city council members voted 7-1 to deny the map amendment. The question of lost tax dollars was central to their denial, according to court documents. 

One year later, Joan Dachs filed its lawsuit against the city, alleging that Evanston's denial of their applications was an example of religious discrimination. 

Before ruling on the lawsuit in a bench trial, Cook County Circuit Court Judge Mary Anne Mason considered four other map amendments the city had granted between 2006 and 2009. All four were non-religious applicants, according to court documents, meaning Joan Dachs could not show that the city had treated another religious group differently.