Outcom v. Department of Transportation

              1
NOTICE
Decision filed 01/16/08. The text of
this decision may be changed or
corrected prior to the filing of a
Peti tion for Rehearing or the
disposition of the same.
NO. 5-06-0659
IN THE
APPELLATE COURT OF ILLINOIS
FIFTH DISTRICT
________________________________________________________________________
OUTCOM, INC., d/b/a ) Appeal from the
Porlier Outdoor Advertising, ) Circuit Court of
) St. Clair County.
Plaintiff-Appellee, ))
v. ) No. 04-MR-279
)
THE DEPARTMENT OF )
TRANSPORTATION, TIMOTHY )
MARTIN, Secretary of Transportation, MARY )
C. LAMIE, District Engineer–District 8, and )
JEFFREY L. KEIRN, District Operations )
Engineer–District 8, ) Honorable
) Andrew J. Gleeson,
Defendants-Appellants. ) Judge, presiding.
_______________________________________________________________________
JUSTICE WELCH delivered the opinion of the court:
On July 26, 2004, Outcom, Inc., doing business as Porlier Outdoor Advertising
(Outcom), submitted two applications to the Illinois Department of Transportation (the
Department) for outdoor-advertising permits to erect two business-area signs along Interstate
64 in the Village of Caseyville (the Village). The proposed site had been annexed into the
Village on February 5, 2003, and was zoned industrial. Prior to that time, the property had
been in an unincorporated area and had been unzoned. A commercial radio tower and
attendant structure had been continuously located upon the site since prior to September 21,
1959.
The Department denied the applications for the reason that prior to the site's
annexation into the Village, the use of the site had been agricultural, notwithstanding the
presence of the commercial radio tower and attendant structure, and signs are not allowed