Rulings loom on Children's suits

Issue that convulsed city last spring gets day in court

05/06/2009 10:00 PM

By BEN MYERS
Contributing Reporter

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A decision is expected today, May 7, in one of two lawsuits that challenge the Chicago Children’s Museum’s controversial plan to move to Grant Park. Arguments will be heard May 12 in a second lawsuit on the matter.

Critics of the move argue that special protections prohibit new building in Grant Park, and that four Illinois Supreme Court decisions dating to 1897 uphold those protections.

The lawsuit to be decided May 7 alleges that the city acted illegally in every phase of the zoning process, which consisted of ratifications by the Plan Commission, Committee on Zoning and full city council. A ruling in favor of the plaintiffs could force the museum start from scratch, including a new draft of its plans. The current plan, approved by City Council June 11 last year, is the fifth revision.

Hearings are scheduled for May 12 in the other suit, which seeks to invalidate the Plan Commission’s decision. Part of the complaint centers on alleged due process violations, including the Plan Commission’s failure to notify neighboring property owners of the hearing.

“While defendants claim that notice was provided to some 8,000 individuals and entities, they were and are apparently unable to identify a single individual or entity who owned property at 340 E. Randolph,” the complaint reads.

The Lakefront Protection Ordinance figures into both suits. “Policy 5” of the ordinance, according to the complaint focused on the Plan Commission, is “to maintain and improve the formal character and open water vista of Grant Park with no new above-ground structures permitted.”

The plaintiffs further argue that the Plan Commission ignored the “manifest weight of evidence” at its hearing – specifically, the plaintiffs claim, that the Chicago Park District intends to lease part of Grant Park to a private entity for 99 years.

One of the purposes of the Lakefront Protection Ordinance, according to the ordinance itself, is “to insure that the lakefront parks and the lake itself are devoted only to public purposes.”
Residents who live near Grant Park have been fighting the museum’s plans for years but the controversy erupted in the spring and summer of 2008, when first-term alderman Brendan Reilly (42nd) fiercely objected to the museum’s plans. That maneuver pitted Reilly against the museum’s chief supporter: Mayor Richard Daley.

Calls to Reilly and Jessica Maxey-Faulkner, a park district spokeswoman, went unanswered as of Chicago Journal’s press deadline.


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