Déjà Vucci?

In Lake County they always say: It's one damn thing after another. Except, where you see the word -- damn -- replace it with -- secret backroom deal -- instead. As readers of this blog are clandestinely aware ...

A Mall of Silence

A deal has been cooked involving the Lake County Board and owners of a property on Route 12, the goal being a major 800,000 square foot shopping mall north of Lake Zurich. Although it has generated fierce opposition among local residents, your LakeCountyEye suspects the project is on the fasttrack to being a donedeal. In a democracy the majority rules. In Lake County that majority is sometimes a few members of the Lake County Board.

County Board member Stevenson Mountsier told the Daily Herald ...

he will support the proposal when it comes before the county board, probably in May. "These people, the Dimuccis, want it to be a first-class shopping center," Mountsier said. "I know they're willing to do whatever the ordinances call for. I can tell you it will be a first-class job."
New mall plan could reignite old Taubman land war

And according to the Daily Herald, members of ...

the Dimucci family own the land and have proposed changing the zoning rules for the site to allow the eventual construction of a shopping area on about 53 acres. The land, which is in unincorporated Lake County, now is zoned for residential use.
Talk about proposed land plan near Hawthorn Woods cut short due to legal concerns

Operatives who Google Dimucci and lawsuit may see this 2006 Chicago Tribune story ...

Political infighting and corruption charges loom large in a Cicero case now making its way through Cook County Circuit Court. At stake are lucrative parcels of land ripe for redevelopment, including the former Sportsman's Park where thoroughbreds once raced. Palatine-based DiMucci Development Corp. is suing Cicero, alleging officials reneged on a deal to redevelop 9,000 square feet of commercial and retail space at 29th Street and Cicero Avenue, near the track site. The deal was made under former Town President Ramiro Gonzalez, who lost a re-election bid last year to Larry Dominick. After Dominick took office, he ordered an independent audit of town records that found documents alleging that former Chicago Ald. Edward Vrdolyak--at the time an attorney for Cicero--had worked out a side deal with DiMucci to secure the Sportsman's Park bid. The court filing includes a copy of an unsigned document describing a partnership between DiMucci companies and Vrdolyak from 2003. The paperwork indicates that Vrdolyak stood to make millions if the deal went through, the town alleges. In return, Vrdolyak was supposed to "do all work necessary in the village of Cicero for acquisition and development ... legal work ... at no charge," according to the document. Dominick's administration said DiMucci's deal was void because of that alleged secret agreement and last week filed a motion to dismiss the company's suit.
Cicero accuses lawyer Vrdolyak of conflict
Lucrative side deal with developer alleged

An FYI to operatives, Cicero is located in Cook County -- as in Cook County Politics.