Planned Parenthood/Chicago Area officials said the clinic is scheduled to open Sept. 18, and patients already have appointments that day. But the opening date is in question because the city has hired an Itasca lawyer to review the approval process and determine if Planned Parenthood officials adhered to proper application, permitting and approval procedures. The attorney is also charged with determining whether the developer lied to city staff and aldermen about the medical office complex.

According to Planned Parenthood's petition, it says Aurora doesn't have a legal basis for blocking the center's planned opening, and "its revocation of a temporary operating permit is motivated solely by political opposition to the constitutionally protected right to abortion services."

Carie Anne Ergo, the city's public information officer, said the temporary occupancy permit is set to expire Sept. 17. The certificate of permanent occupancy would not be granted, she said, until after Phillip A. Luetkehans, of the Itasca-based firm Schirott and Luetkehans, finishes his review. The City Council selected him last week after several aldermen voiced concern with the initial lawyer selected for the independent review.

"We did notify Gemini Office Development," Ergo said, that the permanent certificate of occupancy "would not be issued on the 18th unless and until the investigation was complete by that time. And we indicated it likely would not."

The completed health center, near the corner of New York Street and Oakhurst Drive, was constructed after Aurora's Planning and Development Committee approved the final plan for the medical complex on Nov. 16. The owner was listed as Gemini Office Development LLC, a subsidiary of Planned Parenthood. The true nature of the facility was not disclosed to aldermen.

In its petition for the emergency injunction, Planned Parenthood said the medical office is consistent with Aurora's zoning codes and shouldn't be treated differently than other such zoned medical offices.

Planned Parenthood officials said Aurora's only objection is that it "was not given the opportunity to discriminate based on the fact that Planned Parenthood provides constitutionally protected services such as contraception and abortion to its patients."

Without a federal judge intervening, they said, "Planned Parenthood may never be able to operate its facility in Aurora."

"We haven't said they can't yet," Ergo said. "We've said it's unlikely" the clinic will open by Tuesday.

According to the petition, accusations that developers misled city staff and aldermen about the project are factually and legally wrong, and irrelevant.

"The City of Aurora's fig leaf argument that it was 'misled' about the nature of the services that Planned Parenthood intends to provide at its facility is neither factually nor legally persuasive," Planned Parenthood said.

The petition says Planned Parenthood publicly disclosed its plan to operate a medical center providing a full range of reproductive services - including birth control, family-planning counseling and abortions - in published newspaper notices before city staff issued the temporary occupancy permit Aug. 16.

Planned Parenthood officials, applying under the names Planned Parenthood Association/Chicago Area and Gemini Office Development LLC, asked the Illinois Finance Authority Board in May for approval of the issuance of a type of bond to help fund construction and land-acquisition costs for the Aurora health center, as well as work at several other centers in the Chicagoland region.

"Only when protestors began appearing at the Planned Parenthood facility in late August and testifying at public hearings before the City of Aurora, did the status of Planned Parenthood's facility change," Planned Parenthood officials said.

Planned Parenthood will hold a press conference in Chicago at 2 p.m. to discuss the lawsuit.

[HT: John Jansen at PLAL]