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TO: The Honorable Mayor and City Council
FROM: The Law Department
DATE: August 17, 2018
SUBJECT:
A proposed settlement agreement to resolve the City's pending and threatened litigation against the owners of the former Copley Hospital.
PURPOSE:
The proposed settlement agreement will result in the partial demolition and the complete environmental remediation of the former Copley Hospital.
BACKGROUND:
In 1995, Rush-Copley closed its hospital complex southeast of Aurora's downtown. The buildings on the site has been vacant since at least 2000. In 2006, Raghuveer P. and Anita R. Nayak purchased the complex for $1.25 Million through a limited liability company and paid approximately $137,250 in outstanding fines to the City. Over the course of the next several years, the condition of the site significantly deteriorated with the City imposing fines for numerous health and safety violations. In 2014, the City sued the site's seeking to have the property repaired or demolished. That case is still pending. In 2017, the City served the owners with a notice of its intention to sue (NOITS) under the federal Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) to compel the owners to remediate asbestos contamination in the building. Following the City's service of the NOITS, the site's commenced settlement negotiations with the City, the result of which is presently before the City Council.
DISCUSSION:
The proposed settlement agreement is between the City and Raghuveer P. Nayak and Anita P. Nayak, as well as various limited liability companies they control (collectively "The Nayaks"). The proposed settlement is conditioned on, and subject to, agreements between and among the Nayaks, a developer group, and Invest Aurora.
The settlement requires the Nayaks to enter immediately into an agreement with the developer to partially demolish and completely remediate all environmental contamina...
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