Foes of the massive Lincoln Yards development on Wednesday asked a judge to stop the city from spending or borrowing any money for the $6 billion project slated for 55 acres just west of Lincoln Park.
The request by the public sector union-backed Grassroots Collaborative and Raise Your Hand education advocacy group is an attempt to keep the money spigot turned off while its lawsuit to toss out the record-high tax subsidy is heard.
If the motion succeeds, it could stall one of the most ambitious and hotly contested real estate developments in Chicago in decades.
The motion comes as Sterling Bay prepares to begin constructing a park with sports fields, roads and bridges to support the project, and the first of several planned office buildings. Construction has yet to start, however, and there’s no sign the city is in the process of borrowing or spending on Lincoln Yards.
The opposition groups, which filed the suit in April, contend that the project led by developer Sterling Bay should not have qualified for the $1.3 billion in property tax funding. The tax assistance was approved earlier that month by the City Council in the waning days of former Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s administration amid much public controversy.
The tax subsidy is supposed to come from a new tax increment financing district, which under state law requires that the development area must be blighted and not subject to redevelopment absent the taxpayer funding.
The site doesn’t meet state requirements, the groups contend.
“The area’s proximity to Lincoln Park, Wicker Park and Bucktown, some of the most prosperous neighborhoods in the city, make it poised for growth and redevelopment regardless of TIF subsidies,” the motion states.
The TIF subsidy, they also argue, would divert tax money for decades that could otherwise be used for more pressing public needs, such as funding of public schools. Lincoln Yards, which will be built on land used almost entirely for industrial purposes since the mid-19th century, is slated to include 14.5 million square feet of office, residential, hotel, restaurant, retail and entertainment space.
City officials have countered that the development, and the jobs it’s expected to create, will improve the city’s economic fortunes and would not occur “as envisioned” without the assistance. A city Law Department spokesman declined to comment Wednesday, saying the city had yet to see the motion.
Sterling Bay spokeswoman Sarah Hamilton also declined to comment on the legal action, but she said some construction is set to begin soon.
A 1-acre park with sports fields is on track to open to the public by mid-summer at the south end of Lincoln Yards, Hamilton said. It is the first phase of a planned 21 acres of parks and open space in the megaproject, which runs along the east and west sides of the Chicago River between North and Webster avenues.
Construction could begin this year on the first of several planned office buildings at the north end of Lincoln Yards, near an existing office building leased to logistics firm C.H. Robinson Worldwide, she said.
The TIF districts that blanket Chicago — to an extent not matched by any other big city in America, according to a 2018 study by the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy — have become increasingly controversial.
When TIF districts are established, the amount of property tax from the area that’s paid to the city, Chicago Public Schools and other local government agencies is frozen for 23 years.
As development occurs in the district, and increased land values generate higher tax collections, the extra money is put into a special fund that’s primarily used to pay for new roads, bridges and other infrastructure projects. The “increment” tax collections also can be used for affordable housing, job training and infrastructure financing costs.
Critics contend that TIF districts in and around downtown are not necessary and that the ones in more affluent areas benefit well-heeled developers and other corporate interests at the expense of the taxpayer and poorer areas of the city.
“The tax increment financing system has devolved from being used as an economic development tool targeting investment in blighted areas to being misused (by Chicago) to subsidize $5 billion mega-developments like Lincoln Yards that do not require TIF,” the groups’ motion filed Wednesday states. The Lincoln Yards TIF district, it adds, “has violated the letter and the spirit of Illinois’ TIF statute and created a disparate impact on communities of color, thereby contributing to a growing racial and ethnic divide in the city.”
But proponents contend that TIFs, when used properly, lead to development and jobs that would not have otherwise occurred. And they note that significant portions of TIF funds are used to help build schools and replace aging city infrastructure.
Those arguments were on display in April when the City Council considered the deal, approval of which was delayed for a few days because of concerns expressed by then Mayor-elect Lori Lightfoot. But Emanuel had the votes to win approval, and Lightfoot acceded to the vote after extracting a Sterling Bay pledge for more project construction work to go to minority- and women-owned firms.
She later said that as the project moves forward, “we’re going to be able to exercise a tremendous amount of control and it’s going to give us the opportunity to bring community voices into the process that didn’t happen before.”
The TIF including Lincoln Yards is unusual because the developer would pay for major infrastructure projects upfront — including new bridges and a reconfiguration of the perpetually snarled intersection of Armitage, Ashland and Elston avenues — and would later be reimbursed for much of the cost through new tax revenue generated in the area.
Sterling Bay is coordinating the infrastructure projects with the city, Hamilton said.
“We are working through scheduling and hope to begin as soon as possible,” she said.
![At a recent wedding reception in Chicago, guests gathered to toast the newlyweds at the bar. Glasses were lined up in front of them, but no alcohol was poured. Instead, marijuana vapor was pumped into the upside-down glasses, which were then lifted and inhaled in unison. “A lot of people were surprised,” bride Aja Heinlein said. “They didn’t even know that was something they could do.” In the new world of cannabis, consumption at private events like weddings, holiday parties and corporate events is becoming more common. The state law that legalized recreational use of marijuana for adults 21 and […]](https://www.chicagotribune.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/ctc-L-Illinois-marijuana-wedding15_187593870.jpg?w=525 "At a recent wedding reception in Chicago, guests gathered to toast the newlyweds at the bar. Glasses were lined up in front of them, but no alcohol was poured. Instead, marijuana vapor was pumped into the upside-down glasses, which were then lifted and inhaled in unison. “A lot of people were surprised,” bride Aja Heinlein said. “They didn’t even know that was something they could do.” In the new world of cannabis, consumption at private events like weddings, holiday parties and corporate events is becoming more common. The state law that legalized recreational use of marijuana for adults 21 and […]")
