PHILADELPHIA (The Associated Press)— A city councilwoman has withdrawn her opposition to moving a juvenile jail into her district, a compromise that brings the renowned Barnes Foundation closer to moving its prized art collection downtown.

Jannie Blackwell agreed to allow the move in exchange for a pledge for improvements in her West Philadelphia district, including a community center to be named in honor of her late husband, U.S. Rep. Lucien E. Blackwell.

The announcement Thursday ends a three-year stalemate that snarled plans for the Barnes to move its art collection from suburban Merion to the jail's current site near the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Rodin Museum.

Blackwell held up the move of the overcrowded, run-down detention center under a political formality that gives council members veto power over land use in their districts.

She initially sought $11 million in public improvements to her district for hosting the detention center, known as the Youth Study Center. Mayor John Street's administration deemed the amount prohibitively high and critics called her proposal political extortion.

Blackwell said a partnership including representatives from the city, state, school district, housing authority and others has been formed to oversee the project in her neighborhood.

"Not only will we get a Youth Study Center here but we'll have a wonderful enhancement here," she said Thursday. "We help a school here, we help a community here, we do many, many things."

The detention center is slated to move for three years to a temporary home at a former psychiatric facility in the city's East Falls neighborhood.

The Barnes Foundation, meanwhile, is again defending its controversial move in court. Opponents of the planned move have asked the judge who approved it to re-examine his ruling because they believe he was misled before making the decision.

The move required court approval because founder Albert Barnes left a will stating that his paintings must "remain in exactly the places they are" after his death. Barnes died in a 1951 car crash.