It was like a real-life version of “Groundhog Day,” the 1993 comedy about being caught in a Feb. 2 time loop.

You could also call it, “My kingdom for a tarp.”

Developer Shodeen Group’s attorney Daniel Konicek and Geneva city attorney Ronald Sandack went toe-to-toe Sept. 4 before Kane County Circuit Judge Elizabeth Flood over the city’s insistence that a tarp be placed on top of the circa 1843 structure.

Flood said she would issue a ruling Oct. 2.

The Shodeen Family Foundation and the Mill Race Land Company LLC, which own the former Mill Race Inn property at 4 E. State St., sued the city late last year.

The owners sought to undo a hearing officer’s ruling last year that they violated the city’s property code and the assessment of a $750-a-day fine stands until they put a tarp on the circa 1843 structure.

Shodeen Group in Geneva created the entities for the 4 E. State St. property, records show.

As he had argued before in last year’s adjudication hearing, Konicek said that as a historic structure, the former blacksmith shop does not fall under the city’s property maintenance code or the International Property Maintenance Code.

And as he had argued also before the hearing officer last year, Sandack said of course the property is covered by both.

Sandack said the city’s 2016 demolition permit allowed was to demolish the former Mill Race Inn restaurant, “to expose the remaining historical structure,” Sandack said. “The word ‘expose’ meant peeling back the onion – not to leave the structure completely untethered.”

“Shodeen was telling the world at that time ... that it intended to maintain the interior structure for historical purposes,” Sandack said.

In 2018, the owners put a tarp on it. Now the tarp has degraded and needs to be replaced, Sandack said.

“We said we want a new tarp,” Sandack said.

Shodeen’s refusal led to last year’s property maintenance citation, which an adjudication hearing officer upheld – along with the $750-a-day fine.

Sandack had said all the city wanted was compliance, not to collect a fine.

In the 344 days since the fine began accruing on Oct. 17, 2024, the daily fine has ballooned to $250,500.

Also in 2018, the owners sought a demolition permit for the limestone structure.

In hearings before the Geneva Historic Preservation Commission, Shodeen Group President David Patzelt testified that it would cost too much to preserve the limestone structure. City ordinances allow for historic structures to be razed if restoration or repurposing is too cost prohibitive.

Preservationists argued that it could be repurposed and a consultant testified that it could be saved with financial support through a tax incremental finance district.

Neither the commission nor the City Council allowed the demolition.

Konicek said the International Property Maintenance Code states, “‘These provisions, that are issued here, shall not be mandatory for existing buildings or structures designated as historic buildings.’”

Konicek that means it is up to property owners of historic buildings to decide what to do.

Sandack countered that the code states “it shall not be mandatory for the city” to enforce the standards, but that Geneva may do so at its own discretion – which it has.