A Chicago City Council ordinance to transfer a chunk of Englewood’s roads to Norfolk Southern Railway was blocked Wednesday by the presiding alderman — the latest twist in the freight company’s multiyear plan to double the size of one of its rail yards despite pushback from local residents.

Ald. Jeanette Taylor, 20th, and allies used a parliamentary tactic to defer the legislation that would allow the railroad to acquire the streets and alleys it doesn’t already own between two existing sets of tracks from Garfield Boulevard south to 59th Street. She had dropped her opposition to a vote, until Wednesday.

This would have given the railroad leeway to expand its largest U.S. intermodal yard, which has its main entrance at 47th Street and the Dan Ryan Expressway. The lack of a signoff comes after Norfolk Southern acquired about 500 lots nearby in anticipation of City Council’s land deal.

Taylor vows to get Norfolk to agree to community demands on jobs before the next council meeting: “It’s just been a disrespect to me and the community. … Let’s remember, this was the displacement of 400 families in a Black community. And since 2014, they’ve done nothing. It’s dirt.”

Taylor has said she’d earlier dropped her opposition to the project because she thought the railroad was going to meet some of her demands involving hiring and how money was being spent in the community. The railroad didn’t make good on its pledges, she said.

A Norfolk Southern spokesman released a statement later Wednesday saying the council’s actions “further delays progress on this project, compounding the impact of the many delays for our now 15-year effort to expand our 47th Street facility. This project would further Chicago’s role as the heart of our nation’s supply chain.

“The impact is twofold,” the statement continued. “New construction remains on pause, meaning more delays to bid on work by local contractors. It also means a delay in the good-paying jobs created by Norfolk Southern from the expansion, as well as those with contractors and other Chicago businesses that support the yard’s ongoing operations. We are committed to Chicago and the local communities we serve in the region. We look forward to progressing this project alongside our partners in Chicago, all to expand economic opportunity in the community, and to keep freight moving for America’s consumers, and businesses.”

The spokesman noted work has been delayed on the site by the drawn-out approval process of the city ordinance.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot, who introduced the ordinance, has maintained that after decades of industrial job loss, the city can help its remaining businesses by providing land they need to expand at reduced cost.

At a news conference following the City Council meeting, Lightfoot defended the rail company’s efforts on community engagement thus far.

“You gotta go into the community, and Norfolk Southern really has to take the lead responsibility for that — and they have been — to make sure that they’re listening to what the concerns of the residents are and coming up with solutions that address those concerns,” Lightfoot said.

Norfolk Southern’s location in the heart of Chicago means it can’t avoid withering debates over who benefits and who doesn’t from the city’s prominence as a freight hub, what happens when the railroad displaces longtime residents, and whether it’s doing enough to promote green space and clean air for those still living near the tracks.

Taylor previously blocked a vote on the ordinance for five months to pressure the railroad to conduct a study on the long-term health impacts of diesel soot from trains and trucks and to hire more Black contractors and employees, including from Englewood.

Taylor has cited a lawsuit from a longtime Englewood resident whose home was acquired by Norfolk Southern through eminent domain as evidence that the company’s expansion is harming its surrounding community. The railroad made no apologies for taking over the property, according to its court filing in response to her lawsuit, and is now finalizing a settlement with the plaintiff.

“We’re talking about a billion dollar company that got rich off the backs of slaves, and now they’re mistreating Black and brown communities,” she said.

Norfolk Southern spokesperson Connor Spielmaker has said the company supports educational efforts about the history of railroads and the Black community, and that the railroad has tried to be a good neighbor. As required by the city of Chicago for all contractors, the ordinance transferring streets and alleys to Norfolk Southern listed by name hundreds of slaves that the railroad’s corporate predecessors owned prior to the Civil War.

“Diversity, equity, and inclusion are part of our culture today, and we’re committed to continued progress,” he said. “We’re proud to be a majority-minority employer in Chicago, where more than 30% of our local workforce is Black.”

Spielmaker continued: “Expanding this in-town facility eliminates the need for residents (to) commute out of the city for work, creates new jobs, and reduces urban sprawl while directly reinvesting in the communities we have long been a part of.”

He later told the Tribune that Norfolk Southern “has publicly, through multiple public meetings in addition to comments published in your newspaper, affirmed our commitment to hiring diverse contractors for construction of this project in addition to the additional jobs it will bring upon completion.”

But Taylor said Wednesday that she was “not going to sign on the RDA that I was not here for,” referring to a development agreement the city entered into with the railroad for the expansion in 2014.

She also said she wants an accounting of a $3 million environmental and community development fund established by this agreement for projects near the expanded rail yard.

For instance, she says she and community residents didn’t know at the time that this fund paid for $934,000 in improvements to container loading equipment inside the yard, and $200,000 for repairs and upgrades to a rail viaduct along the proposed Englewood Nature Trail. She wants to know how this happened.

”Basically, they went around me and went right to the mayor and asked this to be introduced,” Taylor said. “So it shows you the type of respect that this billion dollar company has for my community.”

Chicago is the country’s largest freight hub, handling half of all U.S. intermodal trains and a total of $3 trillion worth of cargo each year, according to the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning.

John Lippert is a freelance reporter.