Rockford Family Initiative Files Suit Appealing Zoning Permit for Potential Abortion Clinic

The Rockford Family Initiative and three individuals have filed an appeal of the Rockford Zoning Officer's certification for use of 611 Auburn Street as an abortion clinic. The appeal claims that the proposed abortion business has not met the legal requirements to open. According to the details of the appeal, the claim is based on, but not limited to:

​The request for certification was not accompanied by a plat legally recorded under the laws of the State of Illinois and Winnebago County giving a legal description, and the request for certification was not accompanied by a plot plan.

The location of the abortion business is not zoned for commercial use, and there is no active special use permit allowing its use. The location owner, Dennis Christensen, has not applied for a special use permit, and the city of Rockford has not independently reviewed whether use of the location as an abortion business will "endanger the public health, safety, morals, comfort, or general welfare".

Furthermore, the City of Rockford has not reviewed whether the abortion business will:

"have special impacts [or] potentially adverse effects on the neighborhood surrounding the site";

"create significant noise, traffic, environmental, or other impacts that may be objectionable";

"have significant visual [and] traffic impacts";

"diminish property values";

"impede the normal or orderly development and improvement of the surrounding property"; and

"[be] compatible with the existing character of the area."

The owner, Dennis Christensen, has not been issued a home business permit.

The Rockford Zoning Ordinances expressly prohibit the abortion business from: Employing non-residents of the home; and Operating as a medical clinic at its current location.

"When the former abortion clinic in Rockford was open, the owners and staff consistently did not follow state health regulations and placed the lives of women in danger,” said Rilott. “It appears again that many city ordinances have not been followed in this case. The Rockford Family Initiative is doing everything possible to ensure that the laws of our city are followed, and that the killing of innocent children in the womb is never allowed in this peaceful Rockford neighborhood.”