Woodlawn residents and community stakeholders gathered Tuesday evening to discuss and hash out their concerns with a proposed ordinance that city officials say would preserve affordable housing in the area that will be the future home of the Obama Presidential Center.
The forum at Harris Park came two days before the city’s Department of Housing is scheduled to host an open house to further detail the proposed ordinance — which, local leaders say, doesn’t go far enough to protect Woodlawn residents who could be priced out of the area in the expected onslaught of real estate development.
Ald. Jeanette Taylor (20th) told the more than 100 people in attendance that if her constituents are not on board with the city’s plan then she’d ask her aldermanic colleagues to vote the proposal down.
“I will not support an ordinance that the community doesn’t agree upon. I just won’t,” Taylor said. “I got some decent coworkers in City Hall, they’re gonna ride with me. And I will push for this not to come out of the Housing Committee. I don’t want to kill it, but if that’s what needs to happen to make sure we’re not displaced, then that’s what’s got to happen. Just how it is.”
Taylor and Ald. Leslie Hairston (5th) are also sponsoring a proposed community benefits ordinance.
Earlier this month, the city’s Department of Housing announced the proposed Affordable Housing Preservation Ordinance for Woodlawn.
The six key aspects of the ordinance would: grant the right of first refusal to tenants of large apartment buildings; aid current homeowners in refinancing their property to keep rents at affordable levels; provide grants to longtime homeowners to help pay for home repairs; help finance the rehabilitation of vacant properties; set guidelines for how vacant, city-owned land can be developed; and require developments of city-owned land to “meet enhanced local hiring requirements.”
The center — which will include four buildings — will take up 19.3 acres of land on the north end of Jackson Park, though work has not yet started because of an ongoing federal review, as Jackson Park is on the National Register of Historic Places.
