WOODLAWN — Parks advocates looking to block the Obama Presidential Center’s construction in Jackson Park lost again in court this week as federal judges ruled in favor of the Obama Foundation’s plans.
The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday upheld a lower court ruling against Protect Our Parks, effectively allowing the Obama Center’s construction to continue. Judge Diane Wood’s ruling was joined by judges Ilana Rovner and David Hamilton.
The appeals court’s ruling comes after Protect Our Parks argued officials violated state and federal laws in conducting insufficient environmental reviews, illegally delegating its authority over the park site to the Obama Foundation and declining to consider alternative sites for the center.
The group has “failed to show that they are entitled to any relief relating to their overarching claim against the center, no matter under what theory,” the ruling reads.
Woods’ ruling continued on to say advocates have not brought forth any new legal arguments in their latest attempt to stop the project, which will cost at least $830 million to build and operate in its first year.
“This appeal represents, we hope, the final installment in the long-running challenge,” Woods wrote. “… All [the group] has done during this round is to present the same legal arguments that we rejected in [an earlier case], and to insist that our earlier conclusions of law were erroneous. Its arguments are no more persuasive now than they were then.”
Representatives for Protect Our Parks did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The foundation is “eager to bring the Obama Presidential Center to life, and this ruling brings us one step closer to doing just that,” foundation CEO Valerie Jarrett said in a statement.
“Our focus through the legal journey has been to protect the interests of our community and ensure we are able to deliver on the commitment we’ve made to bring our world-class institution to Chicago,” Jarrett said.
Protect Our Parks launched its legal challenge against the Obama Center in 2018, unsuccessfully arguing the plans violated the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments. Various judges have sided with the Obama Foundation in subsequent rulings, including a federal court decision which declined to halt construction shortly after it began in 2021.
The center’s dramatic impacts on the Jackson Park site, neighboring Stony Island Avenue, local transportation and other aspects of the community have been facts of life for South Siders in the years since groundbreaking.
The Obama Center — whose location the former president announced in 2016 and which was initially planned for a 2021 grand opening — is now set to open in 2026.
The Home Court athletics and event center and a neighboring park area with playgrounds, walking trails and a sledding hill are set to open on the campus late next year.
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