May 03--Friends of the Parks has suspended its lawsuit against the proposed Lucas Museum on Chicago's lakefront, the group announced Tuesday.
The nonprofit group, which has blocked the push by "Star Wars" creator George Lucas and Mayor Rahm Emanuel to build an arts museum near Soldier Field, said in a news release that the stay "gives all parties the opportunity to have a more direct and productive dialogue to reach a potential solution about a museum site."
It said it has informed U.S. District Court Judge John Darrah of its decision but added that it could restart its lawsuit, if necessary. City officials asked the group to put its lawsuit on hold and the group said it agreed "because the city is now prioritizing another site" for the museum. Darrah will consider the request next week.
The move marks the latest twist in a controversy that began in 2014 when Lucas shifted the museum's location to Chicago after a national park board rejected his plan to construct the project on a site along San Francisco Bay. It gives momentum, if only momentarily, to a compromise plan for the museum that Emanuel floated last month.
The mayor's plan calls for tearing down McCormick Place's Lakeside Center, placing the smaller Lucas Museum on the convention hall site instead of the original site south of Soldier Field, and constructing replacement convention space west of Lake Shore Drive in a "bridge building" between convention halls there.
The plan would create 12 acres of lakefront parkland by eliminating the architecturally distinguished but enormous Lakeside Center, which former Mayor Richard M. Daley once characterized as the lakefront's "Berlin Wall."
But Emanuel's compromise still faces many hurdles. Leaders of the Democrat-controlled General Assembly and the Republican governor, Bruce Rauner, who have been at loggerheads over the state budget, would have to agree to allow the agency that runs the convention halls, the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority, to borrow $1.2 billion.
Friends of the Parks claims that the museum will violate the public trust doctrine, which holds that governments are obligated to protect certain natural resources, like the formerly submerged lands along Chicago's lakefront, for the public's use.
John Buenz, a member of the group who is a plaintiff in the case against the original proposal, said last week that he also is opposed to the new location. Buenz, who is not an official spokesman for the group, said the lakefront should be free, open and clear for the enjoyment of all residents and building a museum, even by replacing an existing structure, is not in the public's best interest or the intended use of the Lake Michigan shore.
"I don't think it should be between the (Lake Shore) Drive and the lake," he said. "It just should not go on the lakefront."
In its news release, Friends of the Parks said it seeks an "active and serious investigation" of non-lakefront sites for the museum, including the former Michael Reese hospital property at 31st Street, a site at 18th Street that is west of Lake Shore Drive, and the McCormick Place truck marshaling yards, which also are located west of the drive.
City officials and Lucas have consistently rejected those alternatives.
In addition to pushing for a non-lakefront site, Friends of the Parks said it would be open to a site that doesn't reduce the amount of public open space in the city. A spokeswoman declined to answer when asked if the group is unequivocally opposed to any lakefront site.
Friends of the Parks also said it had met with key backers of the museum, including Lucas' wife, financial executive Mellody Hobson, and the Rev. Michael Pfleger, who has criticized the group for fighting a project that backers say will create jobs and boost the city's economy.
The group also said it seeks "a strong grasp of the impact the museum would have on jobs, particularly to South Side residents."
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