After Fighting Lucas Museum, Friends Of The Parks Will Not Fight Obama Library

By Gwendolyn Purdom in News on Aug 3, 2016 7:58PM

Obama was at a D.C. library today! (Getty Images)

The Obama Foundation won't face the aggressive opposition that ultimately doomed the Lucas Museum as the foundation moves forward with building the Obama presidential library in Jackson Park, the Friends of the Parks confirmed on Wednesday. According to a press release, the parks advocacy group will not pursue the same kind of legal action they did against the Lucas Museum because the Jackson Park library site is technically not public trust land.

That doesn't mean the group is happy about the park location of the planned museum, library and Obama Foundation headquarters. In the release, Friends Executive Director Juanita Irizarry said her group is still "dismay[ed] at the use of existing parkland in Jackson Park, rather than abundant vacant land nearby" but that "there is no realistic legal remedy at this time to protect this public open space from this development."

The Obama camp announced last May they'd be bringing the library and foundation to Chicago, and news surfaced last week that Jackson Park had been chosen over other site contenders like Washington Park. The complex is expected to cost at least $500 million and will tentatively open in 20121, the Tribune reports.

In the case of the Lucas Museum, the Friends of the Parks pushed filmmaker George Lucas to shift his proposed 17-acre plot of lakefront real estate, which also happened to be a parking lot, with months of tangled legal action. Ultimately, Lucas pulled out of the deal in June, much to Mayor Rahm Emanuel and other city officials' disappointment. In early July, a New York architect even proposed an alternative Chicago site, the sprawling U.S. Steel campus, but Lucas and his art collection were long gone.

Supporters hope today's announcement means Obama and his library will be staying put.