Study finds environmental concerns at proposed migrant tent camp site on Chicago's Far South Side
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Environmental concerns have been discovered at a site in the Morgan Park neighborhood where the City of Chicago had planned to build a migrant tent camp.
According to Mayor Brandon Johnson's office, a Phase I environmental assessment of the site at 115th and Halsted streets revealed evidence of possible chemical contamination from former tenants.
The study found that a 275-gallon fuel oil tank was placed under the site – formal address 11414 S. Halsted St. – in 1952. This is a matter for concern based on the lack of removal records and "potential impacts to the subsurface," the Mayor's office said.
The site also housed the Victors Valet dry cleaning facility, which is also an environmental concern due to a potential for chemical releases that could affect subsurface soils and groundwater, the Mayor's office said.
Meanwhile, the property across the street at 11451 S. Halsted St. was occupied by gas stations from 1960 until 1978, and based on the lack of records, this is also an environmental concern, the Mayor's office said.
City Hall said it needs to do a thorough investigation to make sure the site is safe.
Plans to use the site in Morgan Park as a migrant camp were put on hold a week ago. The reasoning was that there was no serious need for the site.
Last month, the City Council approved a plan to purchase the site for $1 to set up a tent camp for up to 1,400 migrants. As part of the agreement, any migrant tent camp built there would have to come down by Oct. 31, 2024, to make way for the Morgan Park Commons, a housing and retail development project that was in the works before the migrant crisis began. The State of Illinois has already invested $15 million into Morgan Park Commons.
The City Council in November agreed to Mayor Brandon Johnson's plan to purchase the lot for a migrant tent camp only after the mayor agreed to that compromise with local Ald. Ronnie Mosley (21st), who had previously opposed the plan. Most of Mosley's City Council colleagues appeared set to vote down the project before he and Johnson reached the deal to set an end date for the migrant camp in Morgan Park.
The Morgan Park site had most recently been occupied by a Jewel-Osco store and parking lot.
Plans for a tent camp for migrants had also been afoot at another site at 38th Street and California Avenue in the Brighton Park neighborhood – to the point where construction of the tents began. But that was scrapped by Gov. JB Pritzker nearly two weeks ago.
Pritzker said there were too many environmental concerns at the proposed site to proceed.
When asked by CBS 2's Sabrina Franza last week whether a plan for tent base camps for migrants was a mistake, Mayor Brandon Johnson did not answer directly – instead emphasizing the overall need to plan for the migrant crisis.
"There were 4,000 people that were living in police districts and the airport – 4,000, sleeping outside on the floor," Johnson said on Wednesday of last week. "Now, could I ask a different question? Is it a mistake not to address the crisis; not to plan for it? One would say, resoundingly, that yes, it would be a mistake not to plan for it."