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Aerial view from 2002, showing the Chicago lakefront, Soldier Field under renovation, and the parking lot where the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art is to be built. Meigs Field, a single-strip airport that closed in 2003, is on the right. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Lawsuit challenges George Lucas’ lakefront museum plan

Tom Hoepf
Tom Hoepf

Aerial view from 2002, showing the Chicago lakefront, Soldier Field under renovation, and the parking lot where the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art is to be built. Meigs Field, a single-strip airport that closed in 2003, is on the right. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
Aerial view from 2002, showing the Chicago lakefront, Soldier Field under renovation, and the parking lot where the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art is to be built. Meigs Field, a single-strip airport that closed in 2003, is on the right. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
CHICAGO (AP) – Opponents of George Lucas’ plan to build a museum along Chicago’s lakefront filed a lawsuit Thursday to try to kill the project, calling it an “assault on the shores of Lake Michigan” and urging the Star Wars creator to pick a different spot.

The federal lawsuit filed by Chicago advocacy group Friends of the Parks argues that the city has no authority to hand over the land, citing a legal principle known as the public trust doctrine. That doctrine makes the state a trustee over natural resources and requires it to ensure open spaces are preserved and accessible to the public.

Group president Cassandra Francis says members aren’t against the museum, just its location along the lake.

The lawsuit is the latest trouble for The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, where the filmmaker wants to enshrine his collection of art and movie memorabilia. The California native chose Chicago after negotiations over a waterfront site fell through with San Francisco.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel embraced the idea, and the city has offered to make the land available in a lease, with Lucas bankrolling costs.

Generations of activists have fought to keep Chicago’s lakefront largely free from development and preserve it as public parkland and beaches.

Renderings released this month, depict a flowing white building topped with a hovering ring.

The land is currently a parking lot south of Soldier Field, home of the Chicago Bears.

But the lawsuit says that site consists entirely of land reclaimed from Lake Michigan, mostly in the 1920s. As such, it argues, the state of Illinois holds it as public trust property.

Building a private museum on the site – even if the land is leased rather than sold – would violate the legal doctrine, it argues.

A museum spokeswoman declined comment on the lawsuit. Emanuel’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

Lucas and the Chicago Park District argue project could create significant new green space and enhance recreational, cultural and educational amenities of an area known as the Museum Campus. It’s already home to a natural history museum, an aquarium and a planetarium.

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AP-WF-11-13-14 2116GMT

ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE

Aerial view from 2002, showing the Chicago lakefront, Soldier Field under renovation, and the parking lot where the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art is to be built. Meigs Field, a single-strip airport that closed in 2003, is on the right. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
Aerial view from 2002, showing the Chicago lakefront, Soldier Field under renovation, and the parking lot where the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art is to be built. Meigs Field, a single-strip airport that closed in 2003, is on the right. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.