The first lawsuit has been filed against the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago ahead of the project’s first scheduled city hearing for approval permits.
Protect Our Parks, Inc., submitted a lawsuit in federal court late Monday seeking to “bar the Park District and the City from approving the building of the Presidential Center and from conveying any interest in or control of the Jackson Park site to the [Obama] Foundation.”
[Related: Obama Presidential Center about to hit its first hurdle]
The organization stated that the University of Chicago’s bid to house the building on historic park land that is protected by preservation laws would be a violation of federal and local policy. Protect Our Parks said public park land is “prohibited by law” from being handed over to a nongovernmental entity for private use, and that it would violate the park district code.
The Obama Foundation had originally proposed in 2015 having National Archives oversee the project when it was supposed to be just a library. But the project has evolved into the current $500 million construction development that wants to build a privately run facility on protected land.
The lawsuit said it’s an “institutional bait and switch,” according to a copy of the complaint obtained by the Washington Examiner.
The issue is coming up in U.S. District Court now because the Chicago Plan Commission is scheduled to meet Thursday to decide on zoning approvals for the project. One of the agenda items includes the amending of an ordinance that would transfer 19.3 acres of Chicago Park District land in Jackson Park to be leased by the city of Chicago to the Obama Foundation.
Municipal entities have not disclosed how much it plans to charge the Obama Foundation. But two conservation experts with knowledge of the legal land transfer process told the Washington Examiner on Monday that the city will charge Obama close to nothing for the land.
The lawsuit also stated the Park District does not have the right “to transfer valuable public trust land for virtually no compensatory return.”
The attorney representing Protect Our Parks is Robert Fioretti, a former Chicago alderman who ran against Democratic Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel three years ago.
