It's not all smooth sailing yet...
FAA approves O'Hare expansion
But suburbs get judge to stop work before it starts
By Jon Hilkevitch, Patricia Callahan and Virginia Groark
Tribune staff reporters
Published September 30, 2005, 10:09 PM CDT
"O'Hare is now cleared for takeoff,'' the nation's aviation chief declared Friday, giving the go-ahead for new runways at O'Hare International Airport. But hours later a federal court grounded--at least temporarily--the FAA decision.
The court action, sought by attorneys representing opponents of the expansion, effectively halted the construction that began with a spirited ceremony at O'Hare led by Mayor Richard Daley.
The U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., tabled the FAA's decision until it can consider the opponents' arguments--that federal approval of the project is illegal on religious grounds and that the city should not be allowed to acquire and destroy property without first proving it can finance the project. It was not clear when the court would act.
Earlier in the day, bulldozers began knocking down city-owned buildings to make way for the new runways. Daley, who waited a decade and a half for this day, wasted no time celebrating.
"What a day. White Sox clinch the division, and we are at a groundbreaking today,'' the mayor said on the site of the first new runway while an earthmover carved out a chunk of dirt and dropped it into a dump truck.
He put the $15 billion airport expansion in the same league as the city's rebuilding after the Great Fire of 1871, reversing the flow of the Chicago River and preservation of the lakefront.
Under the plan, O'Hare's intersecting runways would be replaced with a network of parallel ones.
"Years from now, we will all remember this as the day we took a step forward,'' Daley said. "We are going to keep Chicago and the Chicago area at the forefront of the global economy.''
Meanwhile, police in Bensenville stopped Chicago land surveyors from scoping out properties in the way of the future runways, arguing they needed to first seek permission, said Village Manager James Johnson.
Bensenville officials stuffed fliers in doors Thursday warning of the expected FAA ruling and urging residents and businesses to resist city efforts to buy their homes.
"We believe Daley's henchmen will try to come into our community to try to get you to sell your home," the pamphlets said. "Show them the door!"
But several homeowners in the DuPage suburb said Friday they are tired of living in limbo.
Daniel Escutia, 22, who lives in a home in the footprint of the future runways, believes Bensenville should wage a court fight only if there is a good chance that Chicago won't eventually acquire their homes through condemnation.
"If it's going to happen anyway, Bensenville should tell us already because it's been dragged out a long time," he said.
Within hours of the FAA's announcement, attorneys representing opponents of the expansion--Bensenville, Elk Grove Village, a religious cemetery bordering O'Hare and other property owners--argued that the federal court needed to intervene immediately to prevent the city from destroying property and relocating graves.
"Two years ago, Chicago sent bulldozers to Meigs Field in the middle of the night to destroy the airfield and silence the ongoing debate about the airfield's future," the attorneys wrote. "There is every reason to believe that the city will engage in the same kind of destructive behavior here."
In their filing, the attorneys said the city's plan to relocate more than 1,300 graves in St. Johannes Cemetery violates a federal law designed to protect religious freedom. They also said that city was prepared to destroy property despite the FAA's failure to prove Chicago can afford to pay for its expansion plans.
The opponents argued that any removal "of the remains of a Christian once he or she is committed to the sanctified final resting spot [could prevent] the physical resurrection of his or her body on the Day of Resurrection.''
Arlington Heights resident Bob Sell, who has several relatives buried at St. Johannes, was outraged by the FAA decision. Sell said he had hoped the federal government would realize the plan violated the church's religious beliefs and "somewhere, somehow, someway take one runway and put it somewhere else other than through our grandparents and fathers and mothers and children."
City officials told the FAA they have made painstaking plans to handle the disinterment of remains from St. Johannes with dignity, transport all reusable grave markers and monuments to new grave sites as directed by surviving family members and pay all associated costs.
The FAA decision recognized that moving the cemetery is likely to "substantially burden the exercise of religion.'' But the FAA noted that the government has a compelling interest in reducing O'Hare delays and said there is no better alternative than using the cemetery property.
The FAA decision also expressed confidence O'Hare expansion can be paid for and carried out.
Federal Aviation Administrator Marion Blakey boasted that the city's plan would cut flight delays by 66 percent on average, saying such a change is needed "for the efficiency of our nation's aviation system.''
Still, FAA officials cautioned that new runways won't make O'Hare delays disappear. Even with the city's expansion plan, if fully completed, passengers and the airlines will face more than $1.7 billion annually in lost time and other costs associated with delays, the FAA said.
The city and the FAA disagree on how much the project will cost. The FAA's price tag for the two phases of the O'Hare expansion plan is about $560 million higher than cost estimate the city has cited repeatedly.
The FAA said its cost estimate accounts for recent increases in the cost of construction materials and labor.
In all, the airfield expansion, proposed passenger terminals and other airport improvements necessary to make O'Hare expansion work will cost nearly $15 billion. That doesn't include billions of dollars in interest the city must pay on the money it borrows, and several billion dollars in road and mass-transit improvements needed to transport people in and out of the airport.
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Tribune staff reporter Gary Washburn contributed to this report.
jhilkevitch@tribune.com
pcallahan@tribune.com
vgroark@tribune.com