Chicago City Wire

Chicago’s 45th Ward residents opposed to the Jefferson Park development have been unable to get support from state Rep. Robert Martwick (D-Chicago) in their efforts to halt the planned development.

Martwick was on the Gladstone Park Corridor Study three years ago, along with Chicago Alderman John Arena, the champion of the seven-story, mixed-use development in question, according to an article in Medium.com. Chicago writer Florian Sohnke reports that Martwick was consulted after Arena “violated key tenets of the Gladstone Park Corridor Study’s conclusions.”

However, Martwick refused to resolve the conflict, saying “it isn’t fair for me to influence the process” and he hadn’t “taken a public stance on a zoning issue in over five years.” In 2017, two years after the Gladstone study was completed, Martwick publicly denied he had been involved in the study.

Rep. Robert Martwick (D-Chicago) | http://www.robertmartwick.com/photos.php?level=picture&id=128

Ammie Kessem, Martwick’s Republican opponent in the upcoming state House race, believes Martwick has little concern for local residents’ opposition to the project, Sohnke wrote.

"Martwick retreated from offering relief to residents earnestly appealing for his intervention in the 5150 plan,” Kessem was quoted in the Medium article. “We soon discovered he considered us a nuisance to be treated with indifference.”

Kessem and Martwick are competing for the 19th District House seat, which includes Cook County, the Chicago metro area, and the townships of Leyden and Norwood Park.