Dueling airport plans story

Dueling airport plans sent back to planners

by Carol Henrichs

The Federal Aviation Administration has rejected dueling plans for the proposed airport at Peotone.


Last Friday, the Illinois Department of Transportation submitted two different configurations for the project. One was its own plan, created out of a 1994 decision by Gov. Jim Edgar for state sponsorship of a new airport at the Peotone site, two years after it was rejected by regional consensus. The map sumitted Friday is the result of numerous revisions of the reduced, readjusted, and overall massaged airport layout plan.


The other configuration for the proposed airport was conceived by the Abraham Lincoln National Airport Commission (ALNAC), the self-appointed airport authority spearheaded by U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr. with a little help from the state’s consultant TAMS.


Bouncing the plan back to the state seemed to surprise IDOT officials, but it should have come as no surprise that the FAA would require the sponsor of a proposed new air carrier airport to submit only one plan.

The FAA requires that a new airport be supported by a ‘regional consensus.’


‘Regional consensus’ is a reasonable request for support of a major airport that, if and when completed could dwarf the size of O’Hare and operate just a few miles from a neighboring state.


The term, ‘regional consensus’ has been bandied about since 1992 when a bistate policy committee, made up of 11 members from Illinois, Indiana, and Chicago, was charged with selecting a preferred site for a new airport.


The term was written into the law on April 5, 2000 when President Bill Clinton signed Public Law 106-181 of Title 49, United States Code. It “encourages the FAA to consider any proposal with a ‘regional consensus’ submitted by a state aviation authority regarding the expansion of existing facilities or the introduction of new airport facilities.”


A new airport at Peotone has never achieved regional consensus, except when the bi-state policy committee charged with selecting a prefered site for a new airport voted against it.


Instead, there was ‘regional consensus’ for an urban location to add airport capacity to the region. The most votes went to Lake Calumet on the city’s southeast side. It was withdrawn from consideration when it failed to gain support by the Illinois General Assembly. But the runner-up was the existing Gary Airport, which has been doing just what Indiana officials said they would do – grow into the title, “Chicago’s third airport.”


A new airport at Peotone has been opposed by the City of Chicago and the State of Indiana. The Greater Rockford area opposes it as well.


The proposal does however, have the support of the south suburbs, Kankakee County and with the exception of the towns most affected by it, Will County.


Of the two competing airport plans, the state’s plan is 5,225 acres in size while the ALNAC plan is 7,855 acres.


The ALNAC plan locates the runway further south toward Church Road. The maps were redrawn to accommodate a change to the impact to Black Walnut Creek. The remap was also drawn to accommodate the expansion of Bult Field, which after a $25 million upgrade, is no longer the little grass airstrip that the 2004 TAMS study said could simply be acquired.

Gov. Rod Blagojevich has been reluctant to favor one plan over the other. Instead, he has encouraged Will County and ALNAC to work together, warning that if the two sides couldn’t come together, the project could be in jeopardy.

Posted by ch at February 14, 2007
Categories: IDOT, South Suburban Airport

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