Dueling airport plans play out in today's Joliet Herald News
Will County Executive Larry Walsh says: Because IDOT's layout is better researched, would displace 133 fewer residents and cares about our locals Gov. Blagojevich and the Illinois Department of Transportation must choose an airport layout plan to endorse and forward to the Federal Aviation Administration so that a final decision can be made on how an airport in eastern Will County will look and operate, both now and in the future.
Interestingly, the choice is between a plan developed by IDOT and a plan endorsed by the Abraham Lincoln National Airport Commission.
The IDOT plan was completed after spending millions in federal aviation funds with consideration of the Tier I Environmental Impact Study already approved by the FAA.
The ALNAC plan was developed and paid for by two airport developers that want to design, build, and, perhaps, operate the airport.These two developers previously had been paid consultants for Elk Grove Village and Bensenville, whose primary agenda is to thwart O'Hare expansion.
Their other agenda is to control the airport proposed for eastern Will County.
It is sad that this political drama continues to play out at the expense of eastern Will County residents.
It is sad that Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. and ALNAC have refused every opportunity to engage in meaningful negotiations, even when they were encouraged to do so by major Illinois leaders such as Senate President Emil Jones and U.S. Sen. Barack Obama.
They have misrepresented every facet of this project in their quest for total control of this airport, which is not within either their political or geographical jurisdiction.
They continue this pattern, saying that "the governor again endorsed ALNAC, submitting its layout plan to the Federal Aviation Administration."
If that were the case, we would not be having this dialogue.
Now it is time for the state to formally endorse an ALP given its responsibility as the current sponsor of the proposed airport.
The choice is simple. The governor should immediately instruct IDOT to specify its own plan as the preferred alternative.
We ask him to go a step further and submit only the IDOT plan so that the FAA can move toward a final record of decision on this airport.
The concepts of ALP's are complicated, but some issues are easy.
First, the revised ALNAC plan would require the state to purchase 7,885 acres as opposed to IDOT's plans to acquire 5,225 acres.
The ALNAC plan would displace 215 residences as opposed to 82 under the IDOT plan.
It may not mean much to ALNAC supporters since these people aren't their neighbors or even their constituents, but we take this issue seriously.
The ALNAC plan eliminates a fourth future runway, significantly impairing the ultimate success of the airport. They also propose flight departures and arrivals to fly directly over Beecher and Peotone, again of no consequence to them, but a major issue for us.
We believe that this airport must have significant private participation to make it a reality.
However, ALNAC wants us to believe there are only two qualified airport developers that will participate in the construction and operation of this airport; we know that there are at least 20 developers so qualified.
If an airport authority is enacted with the legislative authority to design, build, and operate an airport, we are confident that private airport developers will partner with the authority after an open and transparent procurement process.
ALNAC and Congressman Jackson proclaim they want this airport built, but their actions belie them.
When IDOT unveiled its ALP in September, they should have endorsed it and moved it forward to the FAA.
Instead, they revised their original submission to move the location of their terminal. Now, they propose to throw the Tier I Environmental Impact study out the window and delay the project many years.
We, in Will County, believe the governor when he said: "Building a new airport means thousands of new jobs for the south suburbs and Will County, and we're doing everything we can to make that happen." If he really wants to do "everything," he can start by endorsing the IDOT plan as the preferred alternative, drop the ALNAC plan and let the FAA proceed to a final record of decision.
Lawrence M. Walsh is Will County executive.
AND NOW FOR THE OPPOSING SIDE
U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr. says: Because you already endorsed the ALNAC plan, and it's innovative and commercially viable Gov. Blagojevich should endorse the Abraham Lincoln National Airport Commission (ALNAC) airport layout plan as the state's preferred alternative — one more time.
The governor first endorsed the ALNAC plan in his 2005 State of the State address. He said: "Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr.'s plan to build the Abraham Lincoln National Airport at Peotone (using) private investment is both a welcome and innovative way to build an airport. I strongly support it. And I hope you do, too."
Two months later, the governor again endorsed ALNAC, submitting its layout plan to the FAA. "The plan submitted to the FAA is based on the proposal created by Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. and contains the technical layout of the proposed airport," Blagojevich said.
"Building a new airport means thousands of new jobs for the South Suburbs and Will County, and we're doing everything we can to make that happen. I want to thank Congressman Jackson for creating such an innovative plan."Those words, governor, were never more salient than today.
Unfortunately, however, those early proclamations of support led to little follow-up. For nearly 18 months, for whatever reasons, the airport plan languished in state bureaucratic limbo.
During that time, a major obstacle emerged. Bult Field — a tiny, grass-strip private airport that was scheduled for closure — came under new ownership and rose up like a phoenix. Today, Bult's new mile-long concrete runway sits in the middle of the ALNAC footprint.
As a result of Bult expansion, ALNAC reconfigured its layout to create greater separation between Bult and the proposed Lincoln Airport in order to enhance safety, environmental protections, and economic viability of both.
ALNAC presented these changes to IDOT last fall and, at the governor's direction, IDOT last week submitted the ALNAC revised plan and the state's (unrevised) plan to the FAA as two "co-equal" alternatives.
Now the FAA is telling the state to pick one plan as preferred.
Having studied both plans carefully, the developers strongly feel ALNAC's layout plan is superior to IDOT's in many respects and should be deemed the "preferred." Indeed, the state plan appears to contain some fatal flaws.
In the state's plan, the state's terminal is inexplicably located just off the end of Bult's runway. It's inconceivable that the FAA would approve such a perilous layout. But if so, any future expansion of the state's terminal would occur directly under Bult's flight path, a troubling prospect.
Also, the state's plan has the two airports almost on top of each other, meaning there's conflicting air space and virtually no room to develop future cargo and passenger facilities at the state's site. Such unwise constraints will prevent the state's plan from reaching its full potential and will sharply reduce its commercial appeal, thus seriously diminishing its attractiveness for private investment.
The last point is critical.
Remember, the state is not paying for construction of the airport. Nor is the federal government. Nor is any local government. So, who is? The private sector.
No matter who controls the airport ultimately, it must be designed now to attract investors from the private sector. Otherwise it is doomed before it's ever built.
ALNAC's private partners - who have built successful airports around the world and have pledged $300 million to finance this one - say no private investor will invest in the state's layout because it makes no sense commercially.
Under the best layout plan, private investors concede that they expect this airport to lose money for 10 years. No profits will be realized until the terminal expands. And under the state's plan, expanding the terminal will be drastically limited in scope and extremely expensive because of interference from Bult Field.
In short, ALNAC's plan makes more sense if only because it is viewed by the experts as commercially viable, while IDOT's plan is not.
I thank the governor for his past endorsements of ALNAC, and respectfully request his continued support at this critical juncture.
After all, I agree with what he told the Illinois General Assembly during his initial ALNAC endorsement. He said then: "I want to submit a plan to the FAA by this spring so people can start working and planes can start flying."
U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., D-Chicago, represents the Second Congressional District.
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