Christian Campground Accuses City of Using Floodwaters to Destroy It

A years-long feud between the City of Des Plaines, Illionis, and the Chicago District Campground escalated last Tuesday, when the campground filed a counterclaim accusing the city of trying to sabotage the church campground by directing floodwaters toward it.

The counterclaim is a rebuttal to the city's lawsuit insisting that the campground needed to demolish up to 50 wooden structures on its property as they posed a safety hazard due to their age.

The campground said the city of intentionally flooding it after completing a flood prevention project in 2008. While completing the project, Levee 50, city officials "rotated the spigot toward the campground" to cause flooding, according to a report by the Journal & Topics.

The counterclaim, which was acquired by Newsweek, also accuses the city of targeting the campground after it failed to adhere to COVID-19 health regulations when a revival event was held at the campground in 2020.

The campground is represented by lawyers from the Liberty Institute—a religious freedom firm based in Texas—and Illinois-based Kirkland & Ellis. The counterclaim was filed in Cook County Circuit Court.

The city and campground formerly worked together to improve the buildings, many of which were more than 100 years old, while attempting to protect other structures from future flooding. However, the lawyers representing the church said that the partnership faltered after the revival event. Attendees of the event didn't wear masks or adhere to social distancing rules despite health regulations requiring them to do so.

The worst of the floods occurred in 2013, 2017 and 2020—all after Levee 50 had been finished. The campground also alleged that the city never accurately communicated the impact of the project. Then, after the revival event in 2020, the city allegedly enacted its plan.

"The City crafted a plan to retaliate against the Campground with the goal of shutting it down permanently through the façade of an enforcement action based on flood damage to the Campground's structures—damage that the City itself had caused," the counterclaim said.

The city responded to the countersuit with a statement from Mayor Andrew Goczkowski last Tuesday, according to the Journal & Topics. Goczkowski stressed that safety was the city's first concern as to why it was requesting the campground demolish the buildings.

"It's always been the city's interest that the campground not be full of death traps," Goczkowski said. "What if someone or children are in one of those buildings and it collapses? We have always been safety focused. Maybe they can play by the same rules as everyone else does."

The campground alleged that the city was pushing it toward the "risk of permanent extinguishment," according to the counterclaim.

"Unbeknownst to the Campground, these floods were no act of God, but, instead, the result of novel flooding infrastructure owned and operated by the City," the counterclaim said.

Newsweek reached out to the City of Des Plaines by email for comment.