Judge upholds decision for Obama Center to stay in Jackson Park

The Obama Presidential Center will stay in Jackson Park after a judge dismissed a suit seeking to block construction.

A circuit judge in the U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed an earlier ruling dismissing a 2018 lawsuit that tried to halt development, Crain’s reported. The suit, filed by local advocacy group Protect Our Parks, said the city and government officials performed an “inadequate” environmental review of the project.

Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett last August rejected an emergency appeal to stop work at the site, denying the motion without comment. In response, Protect Our Parks appealed to the 7th Circuit, which ruled to uphold the previous ruling.

Protect Our Parks and other neighborhood organizations wanted the center built farther south because they said it would better bolster a needier area with jobs and development. Many Jackson Park neighbors say the center will bring more price hikes that will squeeze them out of their homes.

Former President Barack Obama’s foundation considered multiple locations across the nation for the center and ultimately chose Jackson Park in 2016 because the neighborhood is where he once lived.

More than 75 people gathered near Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s home in Logan Square last month to demand protections against displacement ahead of the center’s opening. The crowd, holding signs that read “Stop displacement of Black families” and “Woodlawn called dibs on the city lots,” shut down the intersection of Wrightwood and Kimball Avenues for more than an hour in an effort to get the mayor and city officials to protect residents from the rising home prices and rents in the South Shore and Woodlawn.

The center broke ground in 2021 and construction is expected to be completed by 2025. The center will include a museum, library, gardens and other gathering spaces.

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[CCB] — Victoria Pruitt