A Chicago group made up of residents and environmentalists suing to stop construction of the Obama Presidential Center was dealt a blow Thursday after a federal judge, nominated by Obama, denied their request to halt this month’s groundbreaking.
Judge John Robert Blakey denied a request by several local residents and the nonprofit group Protect Our Parks, which filed the lawsuit. The suit, among other things, argues that the batch of federal reviews into the former president’s $700 million center was faulty.
The group claims construction would cause “irreparable harm” to the park by tearing up roads, cutting down trees, and messing with traffic patterns. Protect Our Parks members, which includes progressives, park-preservationists, a Libertarian, and a member of the NAACP, claim the roads within Jackson Park are integral to the open-space design created more than a century ago by American landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted.
Thursday’s decision helps clear the way for an Aug. 16 groundbreaking and a 2025 center opening.
OBAMA PRESIDENTIAL CENTER APPROVED TO BREAK GROUND IN 2021
“It’s been hard opposing Barack Obama,” Brenda Nelms, a local activist who opposes the Jackson Park location, told Politico. “It’s caused all kinds of name-calling.”
The battle over the center has created tension within the park community and the city at large. Supporters have accused activists and park preservationists such as Nelms of trying to kill a project that is meant to honor the country’s first black president.
Activists say it’s the ultimate David and Goliath story and say they are fighting an uphill battle against a powerful city, the federal government, and the Obamas, who are beloved in their home city.
A spokesperson for Protect Our Parks said Thursday they are disappointed by the court’s decision but that they “will review the full opinion and explore all available options, including immediately filing an appeal and seeking relief from the appellate court.”
In addition, the group said it would continue to “vigorously pursue and present our arguments in court in the coming weeks.”
This isn’t Protect our Parks’ first fight with the Obama Foundation. In 2018, the group unsuccessfully sued the city of Chicago to halt the project on the grounds officials did not have the authority to transfer public parkland to a private, non-governmental entity such as the Obama Foundation. A federal appeals court ruled the group did not suffer actual harm and that many of their other issues fell outside the purview of the court.
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Thomas Merrill, a law professor at Columbia University, told the Chicago Tribune that time might be running out for Protect Our Parks, and the groundbreaking nears.
“There’s a sort of common intuition among lawyers that if you can get the shovels in the ground and get the project started, the courts are going to be much less likely to intervene and declare it impermissible,” he said.
The Obama Presidential Center’s campus will include a museum, Obama Foundation offices, a public library branch, an athletic center, and an outdoor recreation space. It was supposed to open in 2021, but five years of legal wrangling and other hiccups have delayed it.
