By Dermot Connolly
Plans for the future of the St. Adalbert Church property at 1650 W. 17th St. in Pilsen have led to at least one verbal confrontation between Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez (25th).
The 2.1-acre property includes the church, which Polish immigrants built in 1912 and which closed in 2019, along with a rectory, convent, school, and parking lot.
The alderman said Lightfoot and the Chicago Roman Catholic Archdiocese, which owns the land, are not listening to the wishes of Hispanic and Polish residents and parishioners.
Sigcho-Lopez and Lightfoot shouted at each other and called each other names during a City Council meeting on May 24 after the mayor voiced opposition to the alderman’s efforts to downzone the property from residential to public space.
Through downzoning the property, locals are “trying to prevent any developers from putting in expensive condos,” said Moises Moreno, director of Pilsen Alliance. “This is a community fight. We want to support the folks on the ground. We want to leave it [what happens to the property] up to the community. We haven’t heard from other neighborhood organizations. Let’s bring it into the light, whether it is park space or affordable housing.”
Residents and community groups supporting the downzoning oppose gentrification in Pilsen and have expressed fear that selling the land to a luxury condo developer will advance gentrification.
Moreno said CityPads Chicago, a real estate investment and development company, has expressed interest in the property.
“We are supporting the St. Adalbert folks and our alderman,” said Moreno. “This is not the first time we have had to fight with the mayor. We don’t want to see luxury housing. It is getting very scary.”
“Back in 2019, when I first took office and Lightfoot did, too, there was already a contract to sell St. Adalbert to CityPads,” said Sigcho-Lopez. The contract lapsed in early 2021.
“After the last Mass in July 2019, parishioners demanded that the Archdiocese discuss with them their plans, as an effort to protect the property,” Sigcho-Lopez said. “We agreed with the Archdiocese that we would have an open process.”
He said local groups such as the Resurrection Project appealed to the City the Archdiocese’s decision to sell the property, appeals ran their course, and the Archdiocese still has not sold the property. “Our office did our due diligence, and we asked again to reconnect and continue the conversation,” Sigcho-Lopez explained.
He pointed out that the City Department of Planning has toured the St. Adalbert property twice, and a charter school run by Acero still operates in the school building, which Acero rents from the Archdiocese.
“We sent a letter” to the City about the appeal “in February of 2022, but we didn’t hear anything until April,” he said. “No one reached out to our office,” he added.
Mayor makes it personal
“I think the mayor seems to have this tendency to make legislative matters a personal issue,” he said, referring to the verbal altercation she had with him about the St. Adalbert issue, in which she called him “a liar.”
“This is a legislative matter that was handled in zoning,” Sigcho-Lopez said. “She has a record of taking sides with personal interests. We know it is important that we provided public input,” he added, noting the City “was notified twice of residents’ concerns. We waited 60 days and were met with indifference.”
Sigcho-Lopez said this was the second time Lightfoot intervened in a 25th Ward matter, the first being her alleged support for a tavern to open in a “dry precinct” in the ward, two blocks from a school.
Regarding downzoning St. Adalbert, “We had two hours of debate on this” in the City Council, said Sigcho-Lopez. “Her asking for the Law Department to intervene is an unprecedented move.”
Sigcho-Lopez contends the mayor’s friendship with Cardinal Blase Cupich has caused her to take sides. Archdiocese spokeswoman Susan Thomas has said Cardinal Cupich did not contact the mayor regarding the matter.
“My question is, what would Jesus do?” Sigcho-Lopez asked, asserting the mayor is going against what the “vast majority” of residents and parishioners want.
“I think the Archdiocese is choosing to ignore the wishes of Polish and Latino parishioners,” he said.
The alderman has filed a complaint with the City inspector regarding the mayor’s involvement in the issue, which he said violates the separation of powers between the legislative and executive branches of government.
Issue not simple
Downzoning opponents believe it might reduce unfairly the value of private property. Sigcho-Lopez said the issue is not that simple.
“I think that, as St. Adalbert is a place of worship, it belongs to the people,” he said, noting that, because churches do not pay property taxes as most private property owners do, the community has been subsidizing it all these years.
He asserted that “the Archdiocese has created an atmosphere that they have avoided complete responsibility. They want to be the only entity involved. We are committed to have public meetings. We hope the Archdiocese answers our calls for one. In these unprecedented times, we need community spaces.”
Sigcho-Lopez wants the property to remain open to the public or turned into single room occupancy housing or a women’s shelter—uses he feels would better reflect the Archdiocese’s “moral conscience,” he said. “We hope there is a commitment from the Archdiocese to work for the best interests of the poor, the marginalized. That should be the mission and values of the Archdiocese.”
City Law Department attorney Lisa Misher had told the Zoning Committee it would be unusual for a property to be downzoned in the manner Sigcho-Lopez requested, noting it would “essentially eliminate all development rights and convert the property to effectively an open space, almost for public use.”
Eric Wollan, chief capital assets officer for the Archdiocese, has said the Archdiocese would file suit if the council approves the downsizing.
Mayor Lightfoot’s office did not respond to requests for comment.
For the Archdiocese, log on to www.archchicago.org. For Pilsen Alliance, log on to www.thepilsenalliance.org. For Sigcho-Lopez, log on to www.25thward.org.