A railway giant could soon force residents of a Chicago neighborhood out of their homes as part of a plan to expand a South Side facility.
Norfolk Southern said it has been purchasing property in the city’s Englewood neighborhood for nearly seven years to facilitate the expansion of their 47th Street intermodal facility, where shipping containers are transferred between trains and trucks. In total, it has purchased more than 500 parcels in the area, the company said.
Still, 12 properties needed to complete the expansion have not been purchased, and residents say the company is trying to force them out of the homes some have lived in for more than 30 years.
“My plans were to live here until I die,” said resident Deborah Payne. “I can’t even express the happy time I’ve had in this home and in this whole community.”
Payne said she was first confronted by representatives from Norfolk Southern five years ago, but has so far refused to sell her property.
“I was fighting, angry because of the way they did it,” she said.
Norfolk said 96 percent of property owners in the area chose to sell their homes at the company’s request and the railway giant used a Chicago company to help those homeowners relocate. They then notified the remaining property owners that they would begin “eminent domain proceedings” if they refused to sell.
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“Though it is always a last resort, condemnation is sometimes necessary and is designed to let a third party, in this case, the court, decide appropriate compensation for homeowners,” the company said in a statement.
Earlier this month, Norfolk made final offers to purchase all remaining properties north of 59th Street and filed an action to purchase three vacant lots using eminent domain. The railway said it is still in the negotiation phase.
“We remain sensitive to homeowner concerns and are hopeful we can reach an agreement with each of them,” the statement read.
Steve Rogers, head of the Englewood Railway Coalition, who owns property in the area, called the railway company a “bully.”
“We believe that we can indeed right the David versus Goliath story. We can be that David and take down Goliath,” he said. “I think they assumed that the people in this community were uneducated didn’t know what their rights were and I think this was done based on some stereotyping of the community as well as the people who live in this community.”
Still, some in the neighborhood say the move makes for a good investment for the now-blighted community.
