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Read the press release here.

Uptown TIF Vote Should Be 'Null And Void,' Activists Tell Judge

By Josh McGhee | January 18, 2017 8:36am
 Andy Thayer of the Gay Liberation Network has protested the City Council's violations of the Open Meetings Act.
Andy Thayer of the Gay Liberation Network has protested the City Council's violations of the Open Meetings Act.
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DNAinfo/Josh McGhee

UPTOWN — Activists are asking a judge to throw out the City Council vote that approved public funds for a high-rise building in Uptown because they say a June meeting about the plan violated the state's Open Meetings Act, according to a motion filed Tuesday.

Lawyers representing Andy Thayer and Rick Garcia sued the City of Chicago last July, alleging they had been systematically blocked from City Council meetings and prevented from being present when the council approved nearly $16 million in tax increment financing funds for the development in the Clarendon-Montrose TIF district, according to the motion.

Circuit Judge Diane J. Larsen should rule the Council vote "null and void," Matthew Topic, of Loevy and Loevy, argued in the motion for summary judgment.

"The city should cut to the chase and admit that barring the general public is indefensible under the Open Meetings Act," Thayer, of the Gay Liberation Network, said in a news release Tuesday.

The City Council must allow members of the public to weigh in on matters at meetings of all 50 aldermen and the mayor — not just at council committee meetings, the Cook County judge decided last month, but did not rule on whether the council's actions should be thrown out.

The city has appealed the ruling, the press release said.

Demolition of the Frank Cuneo Memorial Hospital and former Maryville Academy site has begun in preparation for the construction of 811 Uptown, the 373-unit building slated for the Clarendon-Montrose TIF district.

The city's Law Department was not immediately available for comment.

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