Court of Appeals sides with city in Chauncey lawsuit

IOWA CITY - A judge has ruled in favor of Iowa City in one of two pending lawsuits against the city regarding the divisive Chauncey tower.

The Court of Appeals of Iowa on Wednesday affirmed a Johnson County Judge's April dismissal of a lawsuit filed by members of Iowa Coalition Against the Shadow, a citizen group formed almost three years ago in opposition to the downtown high-rise.

'We're surprised by the ruling,” said Christopher Warnock, Iowa City attorney with the coalition. 'We're going to definitely seek further review of this. Those are pretty much like a Hail Mary, for the most part.”

Warnock said he has 20 days from the ruling to petition for further review at the Supreme Court level. He added getting such a review is unlikely.

The coalition's lawsuit stems from a 2013 application by members of the group, including area lawyer Rockne Cole, to rezone land tabbed for the Chauncey, a 15-story multiuse building proposed by developer Marc Moen.

Cole and the coalition filed the lawsuit against the city after the Iowa City Council denied the application, which called for rezoning the plot as central business district to allow buildings no taller than 75 feet.

However, Johnson County Judge Paul Miller found - and the Court of Appeals later affirmed - the applicants had no standing in the lawsuit because the city owned the land, had already been working toward the Chauncey and none of the applicants owned nearby property or had any intention of purchasing the land.

However, Cole and Warnock argue the opposite.

'The gist of the ruling is, citizens have no right even if they have a properly filed application,” Cole said. 'In our view it involves a fundamental issue of access to the courts.”

Cole was elected to the Iowa City Council in November, but said, while he will likely seek further review in the lawsuit, he plans to abstain from all Chauncey-related votes that come before the council.

Moen said he expected the April ruling to be affirmed and was 'thrilled” by the Wednesday announcement.

Moen added the two lawsuits filed against the city's support of the Chauncey have caused thousands of dollars in damages from delays, adding to the building's roughly $49 million price tag.

'It's great news, but it's such an unnecessary delay and has cost enormous amounts of money. Even when you know what the ruling is going to be, you still have to wait it out,” he said. 'It's well over $1 million in damages now.”

Despite Wednesday's ruling, Moen's project still is waiting on a second lawsuit, filed last year by the nearby Trinity Episcopal Church argues the city's rezoning to make way for the building downtown was contrary to the city's comprehensive land use plan and the city had wrongly rejected the church's objection to the rezoning request.

That lawsuit was dismissed in October, but the church appealed that ruling in November.

Moen said he couldn't speak in great detail about the pending Trinity lawsuit, but said while he still plans to erect the building he proposed more than three years ago.

'I'd like to see where it goes with Trinity and then we'll have to make a decision,” he said. It's a real dilemma because of the delay.”