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Monat v. County of Cook

Case Date: 05/14/2001
Court: 1st District Appellate
Docket No: 1-00-0782 Rel

FIRST DIVISION
May 14, 2001





No. 1-00-0782

ALLAN MONAT,

                             Plaintiff-Appellant,

          v.

THE COUNTY OF COOK, a Municipal
Corporation, and DONALD WLODARSKI,
as Commissioner of the County of Cook
Department of Building and Zoning,

                              Defendants-Appellees.

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)		 Appeal from the
Circuit Court of
Cook County






Honorable
Aaron Jaffe,
Judge Presiding.

PRESIDING JUSTICE McNULTY delivered the opinion of thecourt:

Allan Monat sued Cook County and the commissioner of itsDepartment of Building and Zoning (DBZ), Donald Wlodarski,seeking a writ of mandamus and an injunction directing defendantsto issue him a building permit. The trial court granted defendants' motion for summary judgment. Monat now appeals.

Monat owned horses and kept them at a stable a considerabledistance from his home. In December 1996 he found a house forsale in the Timberlane Estates subdivision of NorthfieldTownship, in unincorporated Cook County, where nearby homeownerskept horses on their properties. Monat tried to find out whetherhe could build a stable on the property available for purchase.

Timberlane Estates is a 20-acre area divided into 30 lots. One of the lots is about one acre, another is larger than threeacres, and the remaining lots are about a half acre each. TheCook County Zoning Ordinance zoned all of Timberlane Estates R-4,permitting horse stables on any lots at least three acres insize. The lot available for purchase was about a half acre. Theordinance permitted horse stables as a special use on small lotszoned R-4. Cook County Zoning Ordinance