Lincoln Yards lawsuit dismissed by judge, activists vow to keep fighting for TIF reform

A lawsuit filed by community activists against the city’s $1.3 billion tax increment financing deal for the massive Lincoln Yards development was tossed out on Monday by Cook County Circuit Judge Neil Cohen, claiming that the groups lacked legal standing.

Filed by advocacy organizations Grassroots Collaborative and Raise Your Hand for Illinois Public Education this spring, the complaint argued that the site of Sterling Bay’s upcoming 55-acre North Branch megaproject straddling Lincoln Park and Bucktown was not blighted. The developer and city failed to prove that redevelopment would not happen without TIF subsidies—a concept commonly known as the “but-for” test—the suit alleged.

Last month, a Chicago Tribune investigation revealed that had the city’s vote on the TIF deal been delayed and more recent property tax assessment been available, the Lincoln Yards site would have no longer met the criteria for “blighted” land. The designation is necessary for a project to be considered TIF eligible under state law.

The lawsuit also argues that the TIF deal is in violation of state civil rights laws because it widens inequality along racial lines. Despite Monday’s ruling, the plaintiffs vowed to continue to battle against TIF abuses and for a more equitable system.

“Nothing about today’s decision will stop our decades-long fight to end the racist abuse of the TIF program by the City of Chicago,” Amisha Patel, executive director of Grassroots Collaborative, in a statement. “We are going to continue to pursue both our legal and legislative options to stop the abuse of the program.

“We hope that the Lightfoot administration will join with us in the push for TIF reform instead of fighting us. We continue to call on her administration to hold hearings on the TIF program in the low-income neighborhoods that the TIF program was originally intended to help,” continued Patel.

Alderman Brian Hopkins, whose 2nd Ward contains the proposed Lincoln Yards development, applauded the decision. “If I were a lawyer associated with filing this lawsuit, I would have been embarrassed by the fundamental misunderstanding of the law represented by this lawsuit,” Hopkins told The Daily Line on Monday. “The judge did the right thing.”

The city’s Cortland/Chicago River TIF district, which was passed by the Chicago City Council in the final days former Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s administration, essentially freezes real estate taxes on the vacant land at their current levels and uses incremental tax revenue generated by the project to reimburse Sterling Bay for fronting the cost of infrastructure improvements. These include new bridges over the Chicago River, an extension of the 606 trail, and a realignment of the Elston-Armitage-Ashland intersection.

The $6 billion Lincoln Yards project is zoned for 14.5 million square feet worth of buildings. When completed, the riverfront development will support an estimated 23,000 jobs, 6,000 residential units, and 21 acres of publicly accessible open space.

Earlier this summer, Sterling Bay brought new soccer fields and an alphabet-themed series of murals to the North Branch site. The first new buildings at Lincoln Yards are planned at the parcel’s northern edge, near the C.H. Robinson headquarters.

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM)/Sterling Bay