Please Support Itasca Residents' Legal Defense

Itasca Residents Sued by Investment Group for Objecting to Data Center Industrial Development adjacent to a Residential Community

This is not a typical GoFundMe request, and I truly have no other options. I appreciate anyone taking the time to read my story.

My name is Mark Seames. I have lived in Itasca, Illinois, for 50 years, and I am raising money for a legal defense fund to help cover the litigation costs I am incurring to defend against a lawsuit.

My wife and I are seniors in our 70s. We survive on Social Security and Medicare and have limited financial resources. Additionally, we are the guardians of our five-year-old granddaughter and twelve-year-old grandson, who attend the wonderful schools in Itasca. We love Itasca and have always planned to live in our modest home, which we intend to pass on to our children.

An investment group that purchased the Itasca Country Club in 2014 filed this lawsuit against me, my neighbor, and potentially other Itasca residents in September 2021. The financial cost of defending myself and my family for over three years has been devastating.

Those who were aware of the data center plans in 2020 wanted to create awareness among as many Itasca residents as possible through petitioning, yard signs, and formal meetings with Itasca officials during Village Board meetings in preparation for the required Planning Commission meetings.

Many residents believe that the plan to build a data center adjacent to a single-family community will reduce property values throughout Itasca, raise concerns about environmental damage, and potentially set a precedent for future industrial developments in residential areas of Itasca. The Itasca Country Club is an important 100-year-old fixture in Itasca and is currently zoned for single-family residential homes. Building an industrial data center would require changing the current zoning from single-family residential to either special use or industrial zoning.

I, along with others, opposed the proposed rezoning to develop a data center on the golf course property because it is zoned for single-family residential use. Industrial data center complexes do not belong next to residential housing, and irreplaceable open space is vital to any community. If the property were to be developed, as is the owner’s right, it would be better for the adjacent neighborhood and the entire community to be developed in accordance with the existing and appropriate zoning rather than as a data center or some other type of industrial development, which could disrupt Itasca’s core zoning balance and the basic community zoning principles that protect communities.

The zoning change process in Itasca requires those requesting a zoning change to present all relevant facts for such a change, including plans and information regarding the use, location, size, height, environmental concerns, impact on residents, and numerous other factors. The plans must be submitted to the Itasca Planning Commission, which allows for discussion and public debate. The Planning Commission then sends its recommendation to the Village Board, which votes to either approve or deny. Preliminary plans were submitted, but the investment group never completed or followed through with any of the formal and mandatory Planning Commission or Village Board processes.

I believe the investment group sued me for the following reasons:

First, in retaliation against me and others for opposing their data center rezoning plans, they intended to force me to incur huge litigation costs that would financially ruin me.

Second, they want to make an example of me—and perhaps others—to discourage anyone in town from opposing another data center or the rezoning applications that the investment group might file later. By using me as an example, they aim to warn everyone in town that anyone who expresses opposition to a data center, an industrial complex, or any other type of rezoning application could be sued by the investment group. Regardless of the strength or validity of such retaliatory lawsuits, those who oppose may incur significant costs while defending themselves.

By contributing to my legal defense fund, you will:

Assist me in defending myself against a bad-faith lawsuit filed for an improper purpose. Please remember that the investment group withdrew its application before going through the necessary Planning Commission presentation and recommendation process, as well as the Itasca Village Board's approval or denial. This halted the process that would have allowed all Itasca residents to voice their opinions to the Planning Commission and Village Board during the required formal process of a zoning change to build a data center.

Prevent the investment group from using threats of litigation costs to intimidate Itasca residents into not exercising their constitutional rights to free speech and participation in government by expressing opposition to a rezoning application that would adversely affect the Village of Itasca, its residents, property values in town, and the very nature of the Village of Itasca.

Please donate if you can, tell others about our plight, and know that every dollar donated to this GoFundMe fundraiser will go toward the legal costs to defend myself and possibly others against this terrible, vengeful, and retaliatory lawsuit. Hopefully, it will help protect the rights of residents, homeowners, neighborhoods, and communities, such as Itasca, in the future.

Please share this with your family, friends, and others. Thank you for anything you can do to help.