Lawsuit: Warren Dorris Aims To Stop Love's Travel Stop

JOLIET, IL - Last summer, former Joliet City Councilman Warren Dorris put his house up for sale at $750,000. Dorris plans to move into a gated community on Joliet's west side off Black Road. In the meantime, he has not found any buyers for his east-side property near Briggs Street. His land is near the future site of a Love's Travel Center that the city of Joliet approved in a 6-3 vote in October. Now, with construction nearing, Dorris has retained a lawyer to file a civil lawsuit against the city of Joliet in hopes of stopping the project.

The Will County Courthouse lawsuit was filed by Chicago attorney Timothy S. Buckley of Howard & Howard Attorneys in Chicago. The lawsuit states that the upcoming Joliet development along the Briggs Street interchange for I-80 would include a Love's Travel Stop, restaurants, parking spots, gas canopies and a tire shop.

Here are excerpts from court documents filed at the courthouse related to Dorris' lawsuit against the city of Joliet:

• "The City's zoning of the Subject Property to a B-3 classification ... constitutes an illegal and invidious “spot zoning" because, inter alia, the B-3 zoning and the proposed use for which such classification was designated is incompatible with the zoning and uses of the immediately surrounding neighborhood and the prior zoning of the Subject Property."
• "The Plaintiffs' property and the Subject Property are located in an area consisting primarily of properties having residential or office/retail zoning classifications under Will County and the City's zoning ordinances."
• "The public welfare, health, safety and morals will not be benefited in any way by the Defendants Love's and Shuffield's proposed development, all in contravention of the previous and predominate zoning classifications for the Subject Property and the surrounding neighborhood."
• "In fact, the public welfare will be harmed by such development by, for example, creating unprecedented traffic congestion surrounding the Subject Property that would likely impede the ability of First-Responders to serve the public."
• "The construction of a large, noisy, polluted, loud, and traffic-congested truck stop with restaurants, and more density than allowed under the prior Will County zoning, will harm the Plaintiffs, diminish the ability of First-Responders to protect the public and provide no discernable benefit to the public welfare."
• "There was no community need for the Ordinances. Plaintiffs are aware of little community support for the Ordinances, and in fact are aware of significant community opposition to the Ordinances; and The City took no, or insufficient, care in planning for the Ordinances, as alleged above."

If you're interested, here's more information about Warren Dorris' Wow! House that is now available for a reduced price of $700,000. It's listed on Realtor.com, which is a Patch real estate partner.

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File image of Love's Travel Stop in Kankakee, IL via Google Maps