By LORRAINE SWANSON
Editor
Blaming limited financial resources, Fix Wilson Yard withdrew its lawsuit against the City of Chicago and a private developer on Thursday, putting further litigation on hold for one year.
The Uptown neighborhood group which claims to represent over 3,000 sued the city and Wilson Yard developer Peter Holsten in December 2008, challenging the use of tax increment financing to redevelop Wilson Yard into a mixed-use complex in the 46th Ward.
Cook County Chancery Court Judge Mary Katherine Rochford dismissed the residents’ lawsuit in May on grounds that residents waited beyond a five-year statute of limitations to file a lawsuit alleging abuse of state TIF laws in the creation, planning and implementation of the Wilson Yard District in 2001. Fix Wilson Yard re-filed an amended complaint that was again being challenged by the defendants in a motion to dismiss.
Fix Wilson Yard President Molly Phelan told an audience of 30 supporters gathered at the Holiday Club in Buena Park on Thursday evening that it was the neighborhood group that had initiated settlement talks with the city and Holsten to bring the lawsuit to conclusion.
The neighborhood group had asked that rental housing in the development go back to the 80/20 mix of market rate and affordable housing that was originally presented to the Chicago Joint Review Board back in 2004. Fix Wilson Yard also asked that an independent community review board be established to have input into management of the senior and family housing, and oversight of how TIF funds were spent within the Wilson Yard TIF District.
“We wanted to talk about possible solutions for the community to rally around the Wilson Yard development and move forward,” Phelan said. “We wanted to have a dialogue with the city where they understood that mistakes were made and the issues that the community had with developer and the TIF … Unfortunately, both the city and developer told us to go fly a kite to put it nicely.”
Attorneys for Fix Wilson Yard filed a non-suit on Thursday, putting litigation on hold with the option of reactivating the lawsuit within the next year. Even before the decision was made to call for a time out, significant changes to the original TIF district plan have taken place, Phelan said. This includes a recent amendment to increase the overall Wilson Yard TIF district budget by $54 million.
“We just pressed the hold button,” Phelan said. “At this point, we’re chasing a jack rabbit around city hall … We don’t have the resources as a community group to keep up with the unlimited resources of Holsten and the city of Chicago.”
Phelan said the lawsuit never mentioned the Wilson Yard building itself, but was based on the “abuse” of existing state TIF laws.
“The fact that an alderman can get $112 million and do whatever she wants, that is what this lawsuit is really about. It’s very unfortunate that this developer had to be the golden rotten egg of what happens when TIFS go bad,” Phelan said, alluding to Holsetn and Ald. Helen Shiller (46th Ward).
Holsten, president of Holsten Real Estate Development Corp., was unaware that Fix Wilson Yard had filed a non-suit until he was notified by Lake Effect News on Friday. He said he knew about the settlement offer but “we couldn’t go along with it.”
“It was basically putting [Fix Wilson Yard] in control of the development,” Holsten said. “I have financial guarantees out there and it wouldn’t be wise for me to do.”
Holsten and co-developer Hal Lichterman, who passed away a few years ago, had originally intended to put condo towers in the Wilson Yard development composed of 80-percent market-rate condos, and 20-percent affordable condos, “but we couldn’t make the numbers work.” The co-developers then looked at turning the housing component into rental units.
“Had the real estate market been stronger when we were looking at condos, we would have done it,” Holsten said. “It wasn’t strong then and it’s not strong now. We can’t resurrect it now and we won’t consider converting [the housing to condos] in the future.”
Phelan said that Fix Wilson Yard was “going underground” for awhile to regroup and reformulate its strategy. “With all the issues in play, we just literally hit the time-out button. We’re just going to see what else these guys do rather than just throwing money after every corner that they turn,” she said.
She vowed that the residents group would continue to fight and was proud that the lawsuit brought TIF reform to the forefront of the public’s minds.
“We said from the beginning that this was a ‘David and Goliath’ fight,” Phelan told dejected supporters. “If I came here tonight and asked each of you for $1,000 to throw away on another amended complaint, you’d all be pissed at me … Even if we didn’t win, we can say we tried and nobody can say that we let them roll over us.”
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The 46th district residents need to know that the limited nymber of police officers will be re-deployed according to a new formula. A huge factor in in the formula is the number of 911 calls. The more calls the more officers. This was announced on NPR.
“Had the real estate market been stronger when we were looking at condos, we would have done it,” Holsten said. “It wasn’t strong then and it’s not strong now.
What a pack of lies. The TIF was approved in 2001 by the joint review board with a commitment by Holsten and the city that the mix would be 80% market rate and 20% affordable. The community was told at Truman in 2004 that it was 100% low income. So Holsten is telling us that the condo market was bad between 2001 and 2004. Lies lies lies.
I think nothing can be done now specially with the buildings almost completed. Chalk this on up for Shiller but we should now start to look at the empty Maryville buildings at Montrose & Clarendon. Shiller controls the parking lots and she has a eye on this property for more low-income buildings and row houses I am told. We need to put a stop to Helen Shiller low-income buildings before they are built and not after they are up and running. Sedgwick Properties is the management company in charge of them and I would hope many would call and let them know our feelings at 1-773-278-4237. Our Uptown has already been ruined by all the gangs and crime that comes along with these low-income buildings and we cannot afford to have more built in our area……