Fate of Obama Presidential Center could be determined by outcome of Tuesday hearing [View all]
In what could determine the fate of the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago, a federal judge will hear final arguments Tuesday in a lawsuit brought by environmentalists against the city that challenges whether the sprawling campus can be built in a public park.
“I’m all in favor of this investment on the South Side,” said Herbert Caplan, president of Protect Our Parks, the group that filed the lawsuit seeking to stop the center from being located in Jackson Park. “I’ve argued that the South Side would be better served if the OPC were built in another community like Woodlawn and South Shore.”
Caplan’s group argues in its lawsuit that the city doesn’t have authority to offer public parkland to a private foundation for the $500 million project. The city has asked the judge to throw the lawsuit out, arguing that while the Obama Foundation will pay to construct the buildings and improve the landscaping, the campus will be owned by the city and will remain public property.
The legal matter is reminiscent of the court battle that scuttled the $400 million museum proposed elsewhere on the lakefront by “Star Wars” creator George Lucas. In that case, a different parks advocacy group sued, but Lucas and his team didn’t wait for a judgment and decided to move the Museum of Narrative Art to Los Angeles.
Read more: https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/obama-center/ct-met-obama-presidential-center-lawsuit-hearing-chicago-20190610-story.html
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