Group Sues Latin School, City, Park District

By Margaret Lyons in News on Apr 17, 2008 7:39PM

Lincoln Park residents against the Latin School's park deal are taking their complaint to court. The prestigious private school footed parted of the $2 million bill for a soccer field in Lincoln Park in exchange for dibs on its use. Protect Our Parks, a nonprofit group formed to oppose the deal, filed a suit against the city yesterday.

The lawsuit, filed...against the city, the Chicago Park District and the Latin School, states that no public input was allowed before the project was approved. [Organizers say] such inadequate public input violates city laws regulating construction along the lakefront; the suit also alleged that the Latin School is constructing the field without required building permits.

Park and city officials say the school only gets the field about 25 percent of the time, but according to a document from Protect Our Parks, there are only 49 non-winter days (pdf) where the school doesn't have priority use of the field.

There's a hearing scheduled for tomorrow morning. [Trib, S-T, photo by efroten]