The disagreement is frustrating some lawmakers and others living in the community.
For years, the population has exploded on the city's far Southwest Side. The neighborhoods are not too far from Midway airport. Yet, there is one police district for over 250,000 residents.
"There's 84 schools in the 8th District, 23 square miles. Our officer-per-resident ratio is nine officers per 10,000; it's the worst in the city," 13th Ward Ald. Marty Quinn said.
Southwest Side elected officials say the backlog for police calls in the 8th District has more than doubled in the past four years. They say the need is now for another police district. The solution is the old National Guard armory building that has been sitting empty for years.
"So, here we have a building, and so, for the amount of $1, to transfer over the city of Chicago," said state Rep. Angie Guerrero-Cuellar, with the 22nd District.
Guerrero-Cuellar co-sponsored a new law that allows a $1 sale from the state to the city for the sole purpose of using the building for a new police district.
"If not's going to be utilized as a police district, it will revert back to the state of Illinois," Quinn said.
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But, according to an ordinance introduced by Johnson last week, the plan is to use the building for storage, maintenance and operation of police vehicles, not a working police district.
"You should never play politics with public safety; there is a huge need here, and residents deserve to know that when they call 911, that help is on the way. We don't have that right now, and the mayor seeks to be OK with that," 23rd Ward Ald. Silvana Tabares said.
Tabares and Quinn say Johnson is re-writing the state law.
Guerrero-Cuellar has sent Gov. JB Pritzker a letter asking him to delay the sale until there are conversations with the mayor. Johnson claims the federal government needs to sign off on it.
"There is a recess that we are undertaking to confirm whether or not all these spaces can be used for the purposes of which they requested," Johnson said.
Johnson said he has been working collaboratively with the alders on the issue, but they say there hasn't been conversation with the mayor about it.
Tabares and Quinn hope to talk soon with the mayor. They say the population grows every day, and the 8th District can no longer serve and protect on its own.