Legal battle over Chauncey places Iowa City development on hold

IOWA CITY - Attorneys on both sides of the case between Iowa City's Trinity Episcopal Church and the Iowa City Council over a June rezoning that greenlit the construction of the Chauncey tower say they're hopeful a ruling can be reached as soon as possible.

On Aug. 12, Christopher Warnock, representing Trinity, and assistant Iowa City attorney Sara Greenwood Hektoen, will attend a hearing in Johnson County District Court to discuss what both consider an 'aggressive” timeline to reach a ruling on the church's June petition for writ of certiorari against the city's approval of the Chauncey rezoning.

A timeline proposed by the city seeks to hold the final hearing on the petition in mid-October.

For Marc Moen, the lead developer behind the Chauncey, the petition, and waiting on a court ruling, adds yet another delay to a project proposed almost three years ago.

'The unfortunate thing is, regardless of the merits or lack of merits of the lawsuit, the very filing of it is obviously very problematic and very disappointing,” Moen said Friday. 'We're kind of just taking it a day at a time and hopefully they will agree to expedite and have their day in court and get a ruling.”

While the city's desire is to reach a ruling as soon as possible, Warnock said he too wants a quick ruling, but added that he doesn't want to rush the matter too much. Warnock said he will be making a motion for discovery to include information on other building heights within Iowa City. The motion could lengthen the case timeline.

'Whether it's advantageous or not, I'm not going to delay the case just to delay the case,” he said, adding that typically, a case of this nature could take more than a year to reach a ruling. 'This case is going at warp nine. The city has made it clear in their pleadings that this is very important and they want to push it as fast as possible.”

That said, Greenwood Hektoen expressed a desire to move even faster.

'We had joint motion prepared and (the plaintiff) decided at the last minute not to join in that motion, so we are now the moving party to kind of get that aggressive schedule order by court,” she said. 'We're trying to have a schedule imposed that is more aggressive than the rules of civil procedure allow.”

There are a few reasons behind the city's expedited proposal, which would require judge approval.

The city argues there is no need for discovery, as the plaintiff's petition focuses on two purely legal issues; whether the city complied with Iowa Code in their rezoning in relation to the comprehensive plan, and whether the city complied with a state law that requires a supermajority vote of approval when 20 percent of surrounding property owners oppose a rezoning.

Additionally, with the council's approval of an investment of up to $14.2 million to fund the roughly $49 million tower, time is even more crucial, Greenwood Hektoen said.

'There is a lot of work that needs to be done in order for that site to be developed, and that work takes a lot of time and money,” she said. 'And having a pending lawsuit cloud that project is problematic,

so we're trying to just get rid of that cloud.”

For Moen, the petition translates into more waiting on the project.

'This has to get through the District Court before we can do anything ... Nothing is going to happen until we get a ruling,” he said. 'It's very upsetting.”