Feb. 20--The city has set a public hearing before the Plan Commission on a proposal backed by Mayor Rahm Emanuel to use parkland for a Barack Obama presidential library.
The commission will meet at 10 a.m. March 9 on the plan to transfer at least 20 acres in either Washington Park or Jackson Park to the city if Obama decides to build his library and museum in Chicago. Public testimony on the plan will take place, according to the mayor's office.
The meeting is the latest step in the University of Chicago's controversial bid to have the library built near its Hyde Park campus. Emanuel has introduced an ordinance to the City Council to give the city the parkland if the university's proposal is chosen.
The announcement of the meeting comes a day after Obama, who was in town to name the Pullman area a national monument while endorsing Emanuel's re-election bid, met with officials from his library foundation at his Kenwood home for an update on the process.
The Chicago Park District board voted last week to transfer the land to the city if the University of Chicago is chosen to host the library -- a move the library's foundation said "improves Chicago's bids" for the facility.
The transfer of land, which would then be leased to the Barack Obama Foundation for the library, has drawn the ire of opponents who question whether the additional land is necessary. Friends of the Parks has pledged to continue to fight the proposal.
The U. of C. is vying for the library with three other finalists, the University of Illinois at Chicago, Columbia University in New York and the University of Hawaii in Honolulu. If one of the others is chosen to host the library, the land would remain in the hands of the Park District.
jebyrne@tribpub.com
