CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- As preliminary construction work gets underway for the Barack Obama Presidential Center on the South Side, the latest lawsuit to block the project is moving forward as well.
Herb Caplan, president of the group Protect Our Parks, said they are not opposed to the Obama Presidential Center being on the South Side; the 11th hour lawsuit just contends it should be somewhere else.
"The sole purpose of the litigation that we have participated in up until now has been to protect historic Jackson Park from any invasion and any degradation that would occur by attempting to build an Obama Presidential Center in that park," he said.
Lawyer Michael Rachlis said the suit contends that the federal review process for the project was flawed.
"Those processes should have allowed for a review of alternatives, allowed for enhancement of the project at issue, and for the community, but it did not do so," Rachlis said.
University of Chicago Law Professor Richard Epstein, who’s advising the group Protect Our Parks, said reasons to block the Obama Presidential Center from being built in Jackson Park are many, including removing some roads through the park, destroying many trees ,and harming the surrounding neighborhood.
Epstein denies this lawsuit is a long-shot, saying the case is strong if it can overcome the politics.
Protect Our Parks, in fact, hired an architect to suggest an alternative site for the center.
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