DOWNTOWN — More than 300 people have signed petitions supporting a March referendum on the redevelopment of the old U.S. Steel South Works, which would ask residents in three nearby precincts to weigh in on the project, organizers said.
The ballot questions, submitted by activist group Southside Together, ask whether Mayor Brandon Johnson, Gov. JB Pritzker and local alds. Greg Mitchell (7th) and Peter Chico (10th) should “stop the development of the Illinois Quantum Microelectronics Park on the former South Works site.”
The non-binding questions ask whether local leaders should develop “resident-focused, resident-controlled” projects like grocery stores, housing and youth centers instead of the quantum campus on the site. If approved, the questions would be placed on the March 17 primary election ballots.
A sign is held up during a Southside Together press conference outside of 69 W Washington St. on Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2025. Credit: Jeremy Battle/Block Club Chicago
Residents organized the referendum following concerns about displacement, pollution, energy costs and a lack of community input prior to the quantum campus’ announcement last summer, members of Southside Together said at a rally Tuesday morning.
“We deserve to be aware and have a say in what’s happening in our neighborhood, and to be able to thrive here,” South Chicago resident Luna Arielle said Tuesday outside the elections board, 69 W. Washington Blvd. in the Loop. “I see over and over again how this community gets left behind.”
The referendum would include Precinct 14 in the 7th Ward and precincts 2 and 4 in the 10th Ward. That covers the areas immediately neighboring the quantum campus, primarily east of the Metra Electric tracks between Cheltenham Place and 95th Street.
The petitions submitted Monday by Southside Together appear to meet the signature requirements needed to print the questions on ballots, though the elections board is still reviewing and has not made a final ruling, spokesperson Max Bever said Tuesday.
The last day to file objections to public policy referenda is Dec. 22, Bever said.
The precincts that would be included in a proposed ballot question regarding the Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park in South Chicago primarily lie east of the Metra Electric tracks between Cheltenham Place and 95th Street. Credit: Chicago Data Portal
The quantum campus is part of the Quantum Shore Chicago project, 8080 S. DuSable Lake Shore Drive, which is also set to include a replacement for Advocate Trinity Hospital, single-family housing and improved access to South Chicago’s lakefront parks, officials have said.
The development broke ground Sept. 30 and is led by Related Midwest and CRG. A spokesperson for Related Midwest did not respond to requests for comment Tuesday.
Southside Together’s campaign is, to date, the only one to voice “unequivocal” opposition to the quantum campus. The organization also placed referenda on some South Siders’ ballots in past years regarding housing protections related to the Obama Presidential Center in Jackson Park.
Other community groups — including Alliance of the Southeast, ETHOS and Friends of the Parks — have voiced interest in the project’s potential for economic development in South Chicago and skepticism about the developers’ promises.
Those groups have pushed for a binding agreement securing specific benefits around jobs, education, anti-displacement measures and environmental protections for neighbors near the project.
Local governments have pledged hundreds of millions of dollars to the estimated $9 billion project via grants and tax breaks.
Pritzker — for whom establishing Illinois as a global player in the quantum industry has long been a pet project — secured state investments of $500 million for the quantum campus and $200 million for the Chicago Quantum Exchange.
The state’s Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity granted $99 million toward designing and installing cryoplant infrastructure at the campus, while the county Board of Commissioners in October approved a $20 million grant to build a cryogenic facility for PsiQuantum’s operations.
The cryoplants use helium to cool campus systems to temperatures near absolute zero, which is required to operate many quantum computing technologies, officials said.
The city is supporting the development with $5 million from its housing and economic development bond. The development will also receive an estimated $175 million over 30 years in county property tax breaks.
Residential property taxes rose 28.7 percent in South Chicago this year, compared to a median citywide increase of 16.7 percent, as the South and West sides bore the brunt of massive tax spikes, according to the Cook County Treasurer’s Office.
“There are not enough resources in our neighborhoods, and that’s what’s making me angry,” said Stephanie Williams, a homeowner in the 7th Ward precinct that would be included in the referendum. “Companies get bailouts, but not everyday people, not local businesses and their owners, not residents.”
The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency earlier this month approved the developers’ plans to clean up the project site under the state’s voluntary Site Remediation Program.
The property was remediated under U.S. Steel’s ownership, and it has received state approvals indicating the site needs “no further remediation” in the decades since the South Works’ closure.
However, recent soil and water testing found about 6.5 percent of the site is polluted beyond modern standards with contaminants like petroleum, heavy metals and man-made chemicals from the steel mill’s operations.
Residents remain concerned about unearthing slag, contaminated soil and other byproducts of the steelmaking process during construction. Neighbors have also sounded the alarm about the possible effects of transporting pollution — like heavy truck traffic and escaped dust — from the site during its cleanup.
Luna Arielle speaks during a Southside Together press conference outside of 69 W Washington St. on Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2025. Credit: Jeremy Battle/Block Club Chicago
The city and county have until Dec. 29 to provide citywide public questions for the March elections, Bever said.
If neither government submits citywide referenda by that time, ballots in these three precincts would be the only ones in Chicago to include a referendum ballot question, he said.
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