Judge Grants AT&T Summary Judgment in Tower Fight vs. Ill. County

U.S. District Judge Nancy Rosenstengel for Southern Illinois in East St. Louis granted AT&T’s second motion for summary judgment in its bid to overcome the denials of Monroe County, Illinois, for construction of a 155-foot monopole tower on a leased, fenced-in portion of land that also contains an independently run self-storage facility, said Rosenstengel’s signed order Friday (docket 3:20-cv-01327). AT&T’s summary judgment motion alleged the Monroe County board of commissioners failed to comply with the timing requirements under the Illinois Counties Code and the Monroe County Code of Ordinances, and the judge agreed, said her order. “The record is clear” that the county failed to comply with the 75-day mandate in both the Illinois Counties Code and its own zoning ordinance, it said. As for what that means for the resolution of the dispute, AT&T reasoned that if a county acts on an application outside the 75-day window, “it acts outside its conferred power,” said the order. AT&T’s argument is that any decision rendered outside of that power is void, and the court “is persuaded by this logic and applies the same,” it said. The county acted outside of its authority after the 75-day window lapsed, it said. Neither the county nor AT&T “has the ability to waive an express provision limiting the power conferred by statute and the legislature,” it said. Her order set an Oct. 13 deadline for the filing of a joint status report "indicating any other issues necessary" for the court to resolve.