Judge: Latin School can build soccer fields

BY STEVE PATTERSON

Latin School will be able to continue construction on new soccer fields at Lincoln Park, a judge ruled Friday.

Work to install an Astroturf field, landscaping, drainage and fencing can continue in the face of neighborhood opposition, Cook County Judge Dorothy Kinnaird ruled. However, the judge expressed great concern about whether the Chicago Park District followed all public notice rules before beginning the construction last year.

That’s why she’s preventing any lighting, scoreboard, goalposts, benches or signage from being installed in the north meadow of the south field at Lincoln Park. She granted a request that the work be halted until she can properly assess whether all public notice and lakefront protection rules were followed.

A neighborhood opposition group formed earlier this year and filed suit hoping to block all work from continuing at the fields.

Construction began in November and is now 56 percent complete, with a targeted completion date of May 26, Kinnaird said. She cited the field’s previously shoddy condition in allowing some work to continue.

Kinnaird also expressed concern about a clause that would require Chicago taxpayers to reimburse Latin School $2 million if the work isn’t completed.

All of those issues, she said, will be argued beginning May 20 — before she casts a final decision on all work.