On June 5, 2008 the Chicago City Council forgot to ask the Corporation Counsel - "Is it legal?" They had access to over 300 lawyers in the Corporation Counsel's office, and no one asked for a neutral objective legal opinion. These opinions were thoughtfully written and bound since the history of Chicago was begun in 1837. They are all available in beautifully bound volumes from after 1872, because the earlier volumes were destroyed in the Chicago Fire of 1871.
An opinion written by City of Chicago Corporation Counsel Francis Adams that is dated February 2, 1880, is from page 25 and 26 of the first volume that was bound after the fire entitled: "Opinions of the Corporation Counsel and Assistants from January, 1872 to March, 1897". It was "Published by direction of the City Council under the supervision of the Corporation Counsel - William G. Beale, Corporation Counsel. Compiled and Edited by Edward S. Day, Assistant Corporation Counsel". This opinion regards a petition requesting Lake Park land for a armory for the 2nd regiment.
It concluded: "My answer to the questions propounded by the council are, therefore, as follows:
First. The city has no power to make a lease of any part of Lake Park.
Secondly. If the city were to make such a lease, it would not, in my opinion, jeopardize the city's interest in the Lake Park, for the reason that it would be ultra vires and void.
The question whether the council should do that which it has no legal power to do, and which, if done, would be in legal contemplation as if not done, I leave to your honorable body to determine."
We know the history that followed: the council approved the armory, in spite of the advice from their own Corporation Counsel, and it was later demolished because it violated the dedication restrictions of 1836 and 1839, and the Charter Protections of 1861 and 1863.
This must be the reason that the current administration stopped requesting written legal opinions in about 1990. However, the bound volumes are still available to the public from 1872 to about 1940 on the 29th floor in the Cook County Law Library. We also found all the bound volumes from 1872 to 1980 in the research files of the Harold Washington Library. An Illinois Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for copies of all legal opinions regarding Grant Park land use from 1836 to the present has been submitted to the City of Chicago. We will keep you advised of the results of our FOIA request.
Here is the full text of the 1880 legal opinion from the City of Chicago Corporation Counsel to the Mayor and the Chicago City Council:
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"LAW DEPARMENT. Chicago, Feb. 2, 1880.
To the City Council of the City of Chicago -
Your honorable body has referred to this department a petition requesting, "the use for ten years of one hundred feet front, by two hundred feet deep, on the lake front, for the
purpose of building thereon an armory for the 2d regiment."
The opinion asked is "as to the right of the city to make lease of Lake Park, and if lease should be made, whether city's interest would be jeopardized."
In answering the questions propounded by your honorable body, it is necessary to inquire as to the title to the land east of Michigan avenue, as at present occupied, as whether the title is in the city or state does not affect the question. The premies referred to in the petition constitute either part of Lake Park, as heretofore established, or part of Michigan avenue, as being an accretion to such avenue as established by the canal comissioners, by plat recorded July 20, 1836.
Whether it be part of the street or part of the park, the authority of the city is the same. In neither case has the city the power to grant the permission requested. This is true upon all established principles, and without regard to special legislation on the subject. But legislation is not wanting. The general assembly, by act passed in 1861, amendatory of the city charter, provided, that neither the common council of the city of Chicago nor any other authority, should ever have the power to permit any encroachments on the land lying within four hundred feet east from the west line of Michigan avenue, without the assent of all persons owning lots or lands on said avenue.
This provision was re-enacted in 1863. Laws and Ordinances, 1873, p. 456, Secs. 57 and 58.
My answer to the questions propounded by the council are, therefore, as follows:
First. The city has no power to make a lease of any part of Lake Park.
Secondly. If the city were to make such a lease, it would not, in my opinion, jeopardize the city's interest in the Lake Park, for the reason that it would be ultra vires and void.
The question whether the council should do that which it has no legal power to do, and which, if done, would be in legal contemplation as if not done, I leave to your honorable body to determine."
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City of Chicago Corporation Counsel Legal Opinion from 1880 on the use of Lake Park protected land.
The dedication restrictions were extended east of the railroad by the Illinois Supreme Court in their 1902 Decision.
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