Painting themselves as David taking on Goliath, a group of citizen activists from Chicago’s North Side have filed a legal challenge against the city for what they see as another abusive use of Tax Increment Financing (TIF).

According to the suit, which was filed in Cook County Circuit Court Wednesday, the plaintiffs from Fix Wilson Yard coalition alleged that the city signed off on multi-million dollar project overruns at the Wilson Yard site without following through on the oversight required under state law.

The plaintiffs also argue that city officials, including Ald. Helen Shiller (46th), have been nothing short of sneaky in rolling out the $151 million redevelopment plan. They point to a rushed October decision that handed a golden parachute to developer Peter Holsten as evidence.

After five years of delays, Fix Wilson Yard members are hoping the courts will pull the plug on the mixed-retail and affordable housing project. Instead, they’d like to see the site put on the block for private development.

“The taxpayers are losing money every hour,” the coalition’s attorney Thomas Ramsdell told reporters yesterday. “And the school districts, parks, and other taxing bodies continue to bleed money.”

That may be true. As we noted earlier this fall, many see TIFs as putting a major strain on the city’s budget. In fact, County Clerk David Orr put a price on the of-the books tax revenue at $555 million last year alone.

What’s interesting about this suit is the angle that, as Ramsdell puts it, people of “moderate income” are taking on the city. In the world of Uptown real estate, these folks are hardly the underdogs. To many, they represent the gentrifying class.

In fact, many of community’s affordable housing activists—themselves ardent TIF abuse critics—are skeptical of the group’s intentions. This excerpt from the Fix Wilson Yard illustrates the crux of their disagreement:

The commercial and entertainment components at Wilson Yard have taken a back seat to 178 units of 100% low income housing … This plan recreates the failed housing model of the CHA projects currently being torn down all over Chicago: two towers of densely packed low income units which serve only to warehouse the poor. Residents of this failed housing model will be easy prey for the gangs and drug crews that terrorize Uptown today.

What's actually going up is 178 affordable units, of which 100 will be reserved for senior citizens. The remainder will be filled with people earning up to 60 percent of the area's median income, which includes moderate-income earners like teachers and nurses along with truly low-income folks. Federal tax credits for the housing component have been a cornerstone to financing the project.

"There are well-maintained buildings that are very successful," 35-year Uptown resident and Northside Action for Justice organizer Mark Kaplan told the Chicago Journal, referring to similar affordable housing buildings in the area. He added that local resistance to similar affordable housing projects is driven by the "myth of Cabrini Green."*

We'll keep you posted on further developments.

* The preceding two grafs were revised for clarity.