Lightfoot administration authorized to acquire shuttered West Side Aldi

After the Aldi at 3835 W. Madison St. closed last year, some in the neighborhood protested and held a food-distribution event in the parking lot of the shuttered store. On Tuesday, a City Council committee approved a plan that authorizes the city to buy the property as a way to make sure that a grocery store returns to the site. | Pat Nabong/Sun-Times

Mayor Lori Lightfoot is so determined to rebuild the once-thriving Madison Street commercial corridor — and prevent a West Side food desert from getting bigger — she wants to spend $700,000 to acquire the site of a shuttered Aldi’s grocery store.

On Tuesday, the City Council’s Housing Committee granted the mayor that acquisition authority, but not before a lengthy debate about taking a precedent-setting move without clear-cut standards going forward.