We lost in Court this morning when Judge Honzel ruled that Chancery supporters lacked "standing" to bring a lawsuit to challenge the City's decision not to Landmark the Chancery and Piety Hill properties.

Diocese contractors are out now preparing for demolition which apparently could start at any time.

We have one last hope -- that Mayor McNamara could issue a stop-work order that would allow the new Historic District application to be heard. The Mayor issued a stop-work order previously on two separate occasions to allow Council and Court process to proceed. He has been asked to do it one more time so that the Historic District Application could be heard, but so far he has not been willing to do so.

The Historic District Application was filed on Tuesday of this week. It covers a larger area and included the support of 2/3 of the property owners in the District. Approval of the Historic District only requires a simple majority, not a super majority that was required previously for the individual Piety Hill properties.

Please let the Mayor know that you support him in issuing a new stop-work order so that the Chancery can be saved while the Council considers the new Historic District Application.

You can contact him at thomas.mcnamara@rockfordil.gov or his office at 779-348-7300.

No matter what happens, we thank you for all of your support!

Friends of Piety Hill