On a brisk Wednesday morning, South Side residents gathered outside New Sullivan Elementary School to demand their voices be heard about a major development rising just across the street: Quantum Shore Chicago.
“No quantum facility, invest in community,” demonstrators chanted.
New Sullivan Elementary will serve as a polling site for the March primary election, where Chicagoans can vote on a variety of federal, state and local races. For over 300 South Side residents, however, one question they hoped to see on the ballot will be missing.
Southside Together, a local activist group, proposed a nonbinding referendum asking whether Ald. Gregory Mitchell, Ald. Peter Chico, Mayor Brandon Johnson and Gov. JB Pritzker should halt the multibillion-dollar Quantum Shore project on the former South Works site.
On Jan. 13, the Chicago Board of Elections rejected the petition, citing problems with the phrasing of the question.
“I’m being told that I can’t even vote to express my opinion on a project in my backyard using my taxes,” said Stephanie Williams, a lifelong South Chicago resident and member of Southside Together who spoke at Wednesday’s demonstration.
Organizers argued that investors influenced the decision.
“Our opposition paid lawyers to challenge our referendum and remove it from the ballots, saying that the question was too confusing,” Williams said. “I, and over 300 of my neighbors, understood it and signed it.”
According to Board of Election spokesperson Max Bever, the board rejected the question because it contained too many propositions. Illinois election law allows only one distinct question per referendum.
“The Illinois election code can be complicated, and even good faith efforts can fall by the wayside,” Bever said.
He compared the case to the 2024 Bring Chicago Home case, which faced similar challenges over questionable phrasing.
In Southside Together’s proposed language, voters were asked whether elected officials should stop the Quantum Shore development because it could lead to displacement, further pollution and higher energy bills, and because it was proposed without community consent despite costing billions in taxpayer dollars.
Organizers say the massive development, which spans three Chicago precincts, is already driving up rent, property taxes, utility and water bills for a community long burdened by legacy pollution.
Williams said she’s seen her own property taxes increase by $1,000 since the Quantum Shore broke ground.
“This facility will use enough power for a third of a nuclear power plant that’s going to be offloaded into our electricity bills, just like data centers around this country,” said Akele Spencer, a lifelong Pill Hill resident and new homeowner who also spoke at the rally. “We don’t need a quantum facility in our community. … We need resources that uplift our community so that we don’t have to leave to go get what we need.”
The referendum question was intended to elevate community concerns about the Quantum Shore project and provide residents their first formal opportunity to voice opposition on the estimated $9 billion project.
Nonbinding referendums are rarely rejected, said Bever, making this case unusual.
“This is something that we just generally do not see, but have to follow the same type of process, and it’s something that can be frustrating for proponents, especially when it is a nonbinding referendum question,” Bever said.
Local precinct referendum questions are more often rejected due to insufficient signatures, but that wasn’t the case here. Having over 329 signatures, the petition met the board’s requirements, said Bever.
“What’s the problem with allowing people to vote?” Williams said. “They don’t want us to have a say in what’s happening in our own neighborhoods, and they never have.”
This rejected referendum comes as other South Side advocacy groups continue to push for a community benefits agreement with the Quantum Shore developers.
Bever advised organizers to hire an election attorney and appeal the decision in court, but Southside Together organizers said the cost is prohibitive for local grassroots groups like theirs.
Organizers can also resubmit the petition for the November election, but would need to collect signatures again. Bever noted that voter turnout is typically higher in November and encouraged the organizers to try again.
For Williams, Spencer and other organizers, waiting is not an option.
On March 7 at noon, Southside Together plans to host its own community referendum on the matter and will invite lawmakers and the mayor to attend.
“Proponents of this facility wouldn’t spend money to prevent residents from voting on a nonbinding referendum unless they were scared of our ability to stop the project,” Spencer said. “Our community deserves to have our voices shared, to be received and heard. We will not be overlooked.”
