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Docket Nos. 88763, 88764 cons.-Agenda 21-September 2000.

SUNDANCE HOMES, INC., et al., Appellants, v. THE

COUNTY OF DU PAGE et al., Appellees.

Opinion filed February 16, 2001.

CHIEF JUSTICE HARRISON delivered the opinion of thecourt:

On March 23, 1995, this court rendered its opinion inNorthern Illinois Home Builders Ass'n v. County of Du Page, 165Ill. 2d 25 (1995) (hereinafter referred to as NIHBA), holdingunconstitutional the first of two state enabling statutes, andDu Page County ordinances enacted pursuant thereto, which,respectively, authorized and imposed transportation impact fees onnew development. In the context of that case, this court stated,"monies collected thereunder should be returned." NIHBA, 165 Ill.2d at 35-36, 50. The appellants in this case, fee payers who werenot parties in NIHBA, who waited more than five years after theyhad paid the impact fees in question to file for a refund, and whoindeed filed almost a full year after NIHBA was decided, nowseek, by various procedural means legal and equitable, a refund offees they paid under the invalidated statute and ordinances.Although there are several facets to the issue, their right to arefund is the central question before the court. We set forthhereafter facts necessary to an understanding of our disposition.

In 1987, the Illinois legislature enacted former section5-608(a) of the Illinois Highway Code (the enabling act) (Ill. Rev.Stat. 1987, ch. 121, par. 5-608(a), repealed by Pub. Act 86-97,