June 2015 - Parks & Recreation - 31

Buenz, residents of Illinois; defendant
Chicago Park District (CPD), " a body
politic and corporate " established by
state law 70 Ill. Comp. Stat. § 1505/3;
and defendant City of Chicago, a body
politic and municipal corporation.
In May 2014, a task force appointed
by Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel issued a report recommending the parking lots south of Soldier Field as the
site for constructing a museum, to be
known as the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art. The museum is to be operated by a nonprofit corporation also
called the Lucas Museum of Narrative
Art (LMNA), and will be dedicated to
the exhibition of " narrative art " selected by the LMNA. The mayor has publicly endorsed the proposed location.

The terms of any...publicprivate agreement must
not effectively relinquish
complete control of
public parkland held in
public trust to a private
entity.
On or about September 8, 2014,
CPD entered into a MOU with the
LMNA. The MOU formalized the
terms discussed between CPD and
LMNA, including the construction,
use and operation of the museum. It
provides that the museum will be located on the plot of land recommended
by the task force and endorsed by the
mayor. The LMNA would be located
on the museum campus in the area situated between East Waldren Drive on
the north and the McCormick Place

Lakeside Center (East Building) on the
south (the " Project Area " ).
The " Project Area " is located within Burnham Park and consists entirely
of land recovered from the navigable
waters of Lake Michigan, most of it
during the 1920s. Under the MOU,
LMNA " will have the exclusive right
to occupy, use, maintain, manage and
control the museum building and the
museum site. " The MOU does not
specify whether the museum will be
owned by LMNA, the city or CPD.
In its complaint, FOTP alleged
CPD had acted ultra vires (i.e., without legal authority) and in violation
of the public trust doctrine. CPD
asked the federal district court to
dismiss FOTP's claims. In so doing,
CPD contended FOTP lacked legal
standing to bring its claims and argued that its lawsuit was premature,
i.e., lacked " ripeness, " because the
project was a mere proposal subject
to further approvals. In addition to
standing and ripeness procedural issues, the federal district court would
also consider whether FOTP had
alleged sufficient facts, which would
support their claims and avoid a pretrial dismissal for failure to state a legal basis for their lawsuit.
Standing for " Ripe " Lawsuit?
Accordingly, the initial issue before
the federal district court was whether
FOTP had established legal standing
to bring its lawsuit. As noted by the
court, legal standing exists to bring a
lawsuit where a plaintiff can show:
(1) A concrete and particularized injury that is actual or imminent; (2) a causal connection between the injury and
the defendant's action; and (3) a likelihood that the injury can be redressed if
the court finds in the plaintiff's favor.
Applying these principles to this
particular case, the court found legal

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Parks & Recreation

June 2015 - Parks & Recreation

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