Aurora Planned Parenthood's Neighbors and Opponents File Appeal Citing 'Intentional Falsehoods' by the City and Developersby Staff
July 29, 2008
AURORA, Ill., (christiansunite.com) -- On July 1, the City of Aurora quietly issued a Final Certificate of Occupancy to the 22,000-square-foot Planned Parenthood facility, which has been mired in controversy since July of last year. Unlike the now-expired Temporary Certificate of Occupancy under which the facility had been operating, the Final Certificate would grant permanent legal status to the facility.
In response, yesterday, lawyers from the Thomas More Society of Chicago filed appeals to both the Aurora Building Code Board of Appeals and the Zoning Board of Appeals on behalf of Fox Valley Families Against Planned Parenthood and neighboring residents of the facility.
The appellants claim that the City continues to refuse to apply the correct ordinance to Planned Parenthood, even after the City conceded that its outside attorneys applied the wrong ordinance to the facility during their legal review in September of last year. The facility has been marred by claims that Planned Parenthood's subsidiary, Gemini Office Development, falsified permit applications, obtained an invalid building permit, had invalid building inspections, and violated numerous Aurora laws.
"Planned Parenthood has made a mockery of Aurora's development process," states Peter Breen, attorney for the Thomas More Society. "They have brazenly committed fraud against the city and have strong- armed their illegal non-profit 'business' into the backyards of citizens who were given no voice to oppose the building of this Wal-Mart sized abortion facility. It is time for the 'City of Lights' to shine a harsh light on Planned Parenthood's dirty tactics."
These appeals open a new front in the legal battle over the Planned Parenthood facility, including new attacks under the Aurora Building Code against the facility's applications, inspections, and permits. Thomas More Society attorneys previously-filed a nine- count lawsuit, which the City unsuccessfully tried to remove to federal court and have dismissed. On motion by Thomas More Society attorneys, the federal court remanded the suit to state court in DuPage County, where the parties are awaiting a status date.
The Thomas More Society is a non-profit, public interest law firm based in Chicago, Illinois. It was founded in 1997 to meet the burgeoning legal needs of the pro-life movement. The Thomas More Society provides legal advice and assistance to those who face harassment, employment discrimination, unjust treatment, civil litigation or criminal prosecution as a result of their pro-life views or their peaceful protest activities. In the last five years, Thomas More Society has scored two decisive victories before the U.S. Supreme Court in representing the named petitioners in the marathon, nationwide federal class action involving use of the federal racketeering (RICO), extortion and antitrust law against abortion protesters (Scheidler v. NOW, 537 U.S. 393, 411 (2003), and Scheidler v. NOW, 125 S.Ct. 2991 (2006)). In addition, the Society has filed numerous 'friend of the Court' briefs in the Supreme Court. More recently, the Society submitted a brief for an Illinois pro-life coalition successfully urging the Illinois Supreme Court to issue procedural rules to allow implementation of Illinois' parental notification law of 1995.
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