LOGAN SQUARE — The lawsuit seeking to block the affordable housing project next to the Logan Square Blue Line station was dismissed Tuesday after a Cook County Circuit judge ruled that it lacked standing.
Earlier this spring, a group of Logan Square property owners, including prolific Northwest Side landlord Mark Fishman, sued nonprofit developer Bickerdike Redevelopment Corp. and the city over the 100-percent affordable housing complex planned for 2602-38 N. Emmett St., a city-owned parking lot next to the Logan Square Blue Line station.
In the lawsuit, the property owners and landlords argued that replacing a parking lot with 100 subsidized apartments, a project that has been years in the making, would cause them “irreparable injury.”
Bickerdike and the city moved to dismiss the lawsuit at the end of April, saying the “plaintiffs’ concerns, however valid they may be, do not rise to the level of Constitutional violations on the part of the city, and the complaint should be dismissed in its entirety.”
Cook County Judge Neil H. Cohen agreed and threw out the suit on Tuesday. Read the full 14-page order below.
The 100-unit affordable housing project is moving forward after recently securing necessary funding. The City Council in mid-May unanimously approved a plan to allocate $24 million in tax exempt bonds toward the project. It came after the City Council’s Finance Committee unanimously approved the move.
“Our belief in the importance of bringing 100 affordable units to the heart of Logan Square has never wavered,” Bickerdike officials wrote in a statement. “We’re happy to have cleared this obstacle and will be working full steam ahead to get the financing on this project closed, and the construction started immediately following.”
The city’s Law Department also praised the decision.
“We are very gratified with this decision, which is a victory for the city and for our ongoing efforts to create affordable housing,” spokeswoman Kathleen Fieweger said in an email.
Do stories like this matter to you? Subscribe to Block Club Chicago. Every dime we make funds reporting from Chicago’s neighborhoods.
Already subscribe? Click here to support Block Club with a tax-deductible donation.