After a decadeslong environmental justice fight, city officials and community activists gathered Wednesday on the Southeast Side to announce plans for a 43-acre lakefront park at the site of a toxic landfill that’s been operating along Lake Michigan for 40 years.

“What was once a dumping ground will one day be a destination,” Chicago Park District Superintendent Carlos Ramírez-Rosa said. “A lakefront park for all.”

The Confined Disposal Facility was the subject of a federal lawsuit filed by the Environmental Law and Policy Center against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in March 2023 after the agency sought to vertically expand the toxic landfill despite promises to convert it into a public park.

The vertical expansion was halted after the federal case was dismissed in June, thanks to c

See Full Page