Lucas Museum: November 10, 2015

After today's court appearance, all parties in the challenge to the Lucas Museum will proceed as directed by the Court. On December 3, 2015, Friends of the Parks will file its written response to the City’s and Chicago Park District’s motion to dismiss. After a further reply by the City and Park District, the judge is scheduled to issue his opinion in court on February 4, 2016. Meanwhile, pursuant to direction from the Court, the City and the Park District will not break ground on the project. 

"We believe that we have strong legal authority to stop this surrender of a valuable public resource to a private party,” said Juanita Irizarry, Executive Director, Friends of the Parks. “We think that the sale of the property to George Lucas' foundation - a lease that could run for 297 years - is a boon not to the public but to Mr. Lucas himself. And this sale is in conflict with the purpose for which the land is held in trust - the express purpose being to preserve the land for the public and future generations as a pristine natural resource."

“We appreciate the judge reiterating that the city cannot break ground on the museum while this litigation is in process,” said Lauren Moltz, Board Chair, Friends of the Parks.

Friends of the Parks is a forty year old nonprofit parks advocacy group whose mission is to preserve, protect, improve, and promote the use of Chicago’s parks and public open spaces. We advance our programmatic, educational, and advocacy work with the support of our members, donors and volunteers, and through our governmental, community and environmental partnerships.

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